Hazel O'Leary | |
---|---|
![]() | |
7th United States Secretary of Energy | |
In office January 22, 1993 –January 20, 1997 | |
President | Bill Clinton |
Deputy | Bill White Charles B. Curtis |
Preceded by | James D. Watkins |
Succeeded by | Federico Peña |
14th President of Fisk University | |
In office July 13,2004 –January 31,2013 | |
Preceded by | Carolynn Reid-Wallace |
Succeeded by | James Williams |
Personal details | |
Born | Hazel Reid May 17,1937 Newport News,Virginia,U.S. |
Political party | Democratic |
Spouse(s) | Carl Rollins (divorced) Max Robinson (divorced) |
Children | 1 |
Education | Fisk University (BA) Rutgers University, Newark (LLB) |
Hazel Reid O'Leary (born May 17, 1937) is an American lawyer, politician and university administrator who served as the 7th United States secretary of energy from 1993 to 1997. A member of the Democratic Party, O'Leary was the first woman and first African American to hold that post. She also served as the 14th president of Fisk University from 2004 to 2013, a historically black college and her alma mater. O'Leary's tenure at Fisk came amid financial difficulty for the school, during which time she increased enrollment and contentiously used the school's art collection to raise funds.
O'Leary received her bachelor's degree from Fisk before earning her Bachelor of Laws degree from Rutgers School of Law. O'Leary worked as a prosecutor in New Jersey and then in a private consulting/accounting firm before joining the Carter administration. O'Leary returned to the private sector and rejoined the government as secretary of energy under President Bill Clinton. During her tenure, she declassified documents detailing how the United States had conducted secret testing on the effects of radiation on unsuspecting American citizens. She also received criticism for her excessive spending while in office.
Hazel Reid was born in Newport News, Virginia. Her parents, Russel E. Reid and Hazel Reid, were both physicians. [1] [2] [3] They divorced when she was 18 months old. [4] Her father and stepmother, a teacher named Mattie Pullman Reid, raised Hazel and her older sister Edna Reid, [1] [4] primarily in the East End neighborhood. [5] Hazel attended school in a segregated school system in Newport News for eight years. [1] [6] She and her sister were then sent to live with an aunt in Essex County, New Jersey, and attend Arts High School, an integrated school. [1] [6] She earned a bachelor's degree at Fisk University in Nashville in 1959. [6] She then married Carl Rollins and had a son before returning to school and earning her Bachelor of Laws degree from Rutgers Law School in Newark in 1966. [6]
O'Leary worked as a prosecutor in New Jersey on organized crime cases, [3] later becoming an assistant attorney general for the state. [6] In 1969, after obtaining a divorce, O'Leary moved to Washington, D.C., where she joined the consulting/accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand. [1] [6] During the Carter administration, O'Leary was appointed assistant administrator of the Federal Energy Administration, general counsel of the Community Services Administration, and administrator of the Economic Regulatory Administration at the newly created Department of Energy. At the Department of Energy, Hazel met her third husband, Jack O'Leary. [3]
In 1981 O'Leary and her husband established the consulting firm O'Leary & Associates in Morristown, New Jersey, where she served as vice president and general counsel. [7] After Jack died of cancer, Hazel moved to Minnesota. [3] From 1989 to 1993 she worked as an executive vice president of the Northern States Power Company, a Minnesota-based public utilities. [7] [8]
In a press conference on December 21, 1992, held in Little Rock, Arkansas, then President-elect Bill Clinton announced his intention to nominate O'Leary as Secretary of Energy. [9] Clinton officially made the nomination on January 20, 1993, and the Senate confirmed O'Leary by unanimous consent the next day. [10] [3] [11] O'Leary became the first woman and first African American to serve as Secretary of Energy. [12] [13] She was also the first Secretary of Energy to have worked for an energy company. [14] At the time she led the Department of Energy, it had an annual budget of $18 billion [15] and approximately 18,000 employees. [16]
O'Leary challenged the way the department had traditionally been run, particularly its focus on developing and testing nuclear weapons. During her tenure, the size of the Department of Energy was reduced by a third. It was also a target for Republicans who wanted it eliminated. [17] [16] While reducing the size of the department overall, O'Leary shifted resources toward efficient and renewable energy sources, [18] a priority of the Clinton administration. [16]
In this position, O'Leary won praise for declassifying old Department of Energy documents, [17] [19] including Cold War-era records that showed the U.S. government had used American citizens as guinea pigs in human radiation experiments, as had long been rumored. [17] Clinton issued Executive Order 12891, which created the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE) to prevent such abuses of power. [20] O'Leary also announced a $4.6 million settlement payment to the families of victims of past radiation experiments. [17] Other declassified documents included facts about plutonium the United States had left in South Vietnam. [19]
O'Leary also pushed to end nuclear testing in the United States. [12] Her efforts resulted in Clinton signing a test ban on nuclear testing, a ban that other nations joined. [17] Early in her tenure as secretary, O'Leary met with whistle-blowers who said they faced harassment for raising legitimate health and safety issues within the Department of Energy. [4] She announced a "zero tolerance" policy, prohibiting retaliation against whistle-blowers at nuclear plants. [3]
O'Leary repeatedly faced criticism during her tenure. The department allocated $43,500 to a Washington firm to identify unfriendly media outlets. White House Press Secretary Michael D. McCurry called the project "unacceptable." [17] O'Leary claimed the allocation was made without her direct knowledge and defended the research as an attempt to study the efficacy of the department's messaging. [21] A Government Accountability Office audit of travel criticized her for traveling too frequently and spending excessively on accommodations. [22] [23] She apologized to Congressional committees in 1996 for spending that exceeded limits on the funds appropriated to the agency for travel. [24]
O'Leary resigned from her position effective January 20, 1997, [25] explaining she did not wish to stay in the job more than four years. [19] In 1997, Johnny Chung, a Democratic political donor, claimed that O'Leary had met with Chinese oil officials after he gave $25,000 to O'Leary's favorite charity, Africare , in 1995. [26] In August of that year, Attorney General Janet Reno reviewed Chung's allegations to decide whether to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate O'Leary. [27] Reno determined there was "no evidence" of wrongdoing by O'Leary and no basis for a further investigation. [26] Some observers, including a lawyer for the Government Accountability Project, saw some fault in O'Leary's conduct but also saw racism and sexism in the way she was treated. [3]
After leaving the Clinton administration, O'Leary once again served as president of O'Leary & Associates, her consulting firm. [28] She also sat on the board of the environmental engineering firm ICF Kaiser International. [29] In 2000 she became president and chief operating officer of an investment banking firm, Blaylock & Partners. [28] She left that firm in 2002. [24]
On July 13, 2004, O'Leary was selected and began work as president of her undergraduate alma mater, Fisk University, a historically black college in Nashville, Tennessee. [30] [31] She was officially installed as the university's 14th president on October 6, 2005. [32] Before O'Leary's tenure, the university had tried unsuccessfully to increase its enrollment and experienced financial problems. [33] In 2008 Fisk had an enrollment of 770 students and 264 faculty and staff members. [34] [35]
By 2011 Fisk's enrollment numbers improved, [35] but the school was still operating with a loss in six of the previous nine years. [35] These ongoing financial problems caused the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to place Fisk on probation in 2010 over concerns for the university's finances and prospects. [36] [37] The probation ended in December 2013. [36]
Under O'Leary's leadership, Fisk went to court in December 2005 seeking a ruling that it could sell a portion of the university's Alfred Stieglitz Collection. [38] [33] Stieglitz's widow Georgia O'Keeffe had bequeathed the collection to Fisk with restrictions on its sale. O'Leary intended to use the proceeds of the sale to fund a new academic building, endow professorships, and rebuild the school's endowment, which had been drawn down several times before her arrival. [39] The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation opposed the sale, and later the Tennessee State Attorney General opposed any sale of the artwork out of state. [38] Ultimately, after seven years of legal battles, the school was able to reach a deal with Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas to share the collection. At the time the deal was finalized, O'Leary said the arrangement was essential to keeping the university open. [40]
Amidst the public battle over attempts to sell the Alfred Stieglitz Collection, O'Leary quietly arranged to sell two other works of art, including a work by Florine Stettheimer. Fisk's board of trustees approved the sale in 2010 although it was not publicly disclosed until The New York Times reported it in 2016. O'Leary defended the decision to sell the artwork, saying it was done out of necessity amid financial difficulties. [40]
In 2012 O'Leary announced that she would retire at the end of the calendar year. [41] Her retirement was effective January 31, 2013. [42] She was succeeded by H. James Williams. [43]
O'Leary has served as a director for Alchemix Corp. and CAMAC International Corporation. She also served on the board of directors for nonprofit organizations such as the Nashville Alliance for Public Education, the Nashville Business Community for the Arts, and the Arms Control Association, and as a trustee on boards of the World Wildlife Fund, Morehouse College, and The Andrew Young Center of International Development. [28]
O'Leary has been married three times. [4] Her first marriage to Carl G. Rollins, Jr., ended in divorce. The couple had a son, also named Carl. O'Leary was briefly married to ABC News anchorman Max Robinson. In 1977 she met John F. O'Leary, then Deputy Secretary of Energy. [1] They married on April 24, 1980, and remained married until his death from cancer in 1987. [16] [1] Her son is an attorney. [4]
In 1997 O'Leary joined a Presbyterian Church. [3] She is a member of The Links. [44]
The United States secretary of energy is the head of the United States Department of Energy, a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and fifteenth in the presidential line of succession. The position was created on October 1, 1977, when President Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Energy Organization Act, establishing the department. The energy secretary and the department originally focused on energy production and regulation. The emphasis soon shifted to developing technology for better and more efficient energy sources, as well as energy education. After the end of the Cold War, the department's attention also turned toward radioactive waste disposal and the maintenance of environmental quality. Former secretary of defense James Schlesinger served as the first secretary of energy. As a Republican nominated to the post by Democratic president Jimmy Carter, Schlesinger's appointment marks the only time a president has chosen a member of another political party for the position. Schlesinger is also the only secretary to be dismissed from the post. Hazel O'Leary, Bill Clinton's first secretary of energy, was the first female and first African American to hold the position. The first Hispanic to serve as Energy Secretary was Clinton's second energy secretary, Federico Peña. Spencer Abraham became the first Arab American to hold the position on January 20, 2001, serving under the administration of George W. Bush. Steven Chu became the first Asian American to hold the position on January 20, 2009, serving under president Barack Obama. Chu was also the longest-serving secretary of energy and the first individual to join the Cabinet after having received a Nobel Prize.
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman to hold that post.
Alexis Margaret Herman formerly served as the 23rd U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton; she was the first African-American to hold the position. Prior to serving as Secretary, she was Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.
Fisk University is a private historically black liberal arts college in Nashville, Tennessee. It was founded in 1866 and its 40-acre (16 ha) campus is a historic district listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Donna Edna Shalala is an American politician and academic who served in the Carter and Clinton administrations, as well as in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2019 to 2021. Shalala is a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which she was awarded in 2008, and, on August 16, 2023, assumed the role of Interim President of The New School, a university in New York City.
Blanche Lambert Lincoln is an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Arkansas from 1999 to 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, she was first elected to the Senate in 1998; she was the first woman elected to the Senate from Arkansas since Hattie Caraway in 1932 and youngest woman ever elected to the Senate at age 38. She previously served in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Arkansas's 1st congressional district from 1993 to 1997.
John David Podesta Jr. is an American political consultant who has been serving as Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy since 2024, having previously served as the Senior Advisor to the President for Clean Energy Innovation and Implementation from 2022 to 2024. Podesta previously served as White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001 and counselor to President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2015. Before that, he served in the Clinton administration as White House staff secretary from 1993 to 1995 and White House deputy chief of staff for operations from 1997 to 1998.
In the United States, a designated survivor is a person in the presidential line of succession who is kept distant from others in the line when they are gathered together, to reduce the chance that everyone in the line will be unable to take over the presidency in a catastrophic or mass-casualty event. The person is chosen to stay at an undisclosed secure location, away from such events such as State of the Union addresses and presidential inaugurations. The designation of a survivor is intended to prevent the decapitation of the government and to safeguard continuity in the presidency if the president, the vice president, and others in the presidential line of succession die. The procedure began in the 1950s, during the Cold War, with the idea that nuclear attack could kill government officials and the United States government would collapse.
Sylvia Mary Burwell is an American government and non-profit executive who was the 15th president of American University from June 1, 2017 to June 30, 2024. Burwell is the first woman to serve as the university's president. Burwell earlier served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. President Barack Obama nominated Burwell on April 11, 2014. Burwell's nomination was confirmed by the Senate on June 5, 2014, by a vote of 78–17. She served as Secretary until the end of the Obama administration. Previously, she had been the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget from 2013 to 2014.
Philippe I. Reines is an American political consultant. He joined the Department of State as a senior advisor to Hillary Clinton when she became United States Secretary of State in January 2009, and was promoted to deputy assistant secretary of state for strategic communications in 2010.
Jeh Charles Johnson is an American lawyer and former government official. He was United States Secretary of Homeland Security from 2013 to 2017.
Elizabeth Merrill "Lisa" Brown is an American lawyer who is the current General Counsel of the United States Department of Education. She previously served as the first White House Staff Secretary in the Obama administration, assuming that post on January 20, 2009. Earlier, during the 2008–2009 presidential transition, she served as Co-Chair of Agency Review. Prior to joining the Obama Transition Team, she served as Executive Director of the American Constitution Society, a progressive legal organization.
Thomas Edward Donilon is an American lawyer, business executive, and former government official who served as the 22nd National Security Advisor in the Obama administration from 2010 to 2013. Donilon also worked in the Carter and Clinton administrations, including as chief of staff of the U.S. State Department. He is now Chairman of the BlackRock Investment Institute, the firm's global think tank.
Dan William Reicher is an American lawyer who was U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in the Clinton Administration. Reicher is currently executive director of the Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance at Stanford University, a joint center of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and Stanford Law School, where he also holds faculty positions. Reicher joined Stanford in 2011 from Google, where he served since 2007 as Director of Climate Change and Energy Initiatives for the company's venture Google.org.
Michael S. Schmidt is an American journalist, author, and correspondent for The New York Times in Washington, D.C. He is also a producer of a Netflix show. He covers national security and federal law enforcement, and has broken several high-profile stories about politics, media and sports. He is also a national security contributor for MSNBC and NBC News.
John Francis O'Leary was an American government official and business executive. He held top positions in the Federal Energy Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy before moving to the private sector, where he rose to chairman and chief executive officer of General Public Utilities Corp.
Hazel Nell Dukes is an American activist. She is a past national president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the current President of the organization’s New York State chapter.
Ann M. O'Leary is an American political advisor, attorney, and nonprofit leader, who served as Chief of Staff to California Governor Gavin Newsom and as co-chair of the Governor's Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery. She is now a partner at the international law firm Jenner & Block.
Elizabeth D. Sherwood-Randall is an American national security and energy leader, public servant, educator, and author currently serving as the 11th United States Homeland Security Advisor to President Joe Biden since 2021. She previously served in the Clinton and Obama Administrations and held appointments at academic institutions and think tanks.
Lisa E. Gordon-Hagerty is an American scientist and former government official who served as the under secretary of energy for nuclear security and administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration. Earlier in her career, she had served in various other leadership positions in the Department of Energy and the National Security Council.