Released: November 13, 1998
From: Dennis Moore
Elizabeth Dole, former president of the American Red Cross and a career public servant who has been named one of the world's 10 most admired women, will be the principal speaker at the University of Notre Dame's 154th Commencement May 16 (Sun.).
(Please note: The 1999 Commencement exercises will begin at 3 p.m. E.S.T., an hour later than in previous years.)
President of the Red Cross since 1991, Dole is credited with initiating a sweeping transformation of the organization's biomedical services and a dramatic improvement in its work as the nation's largest blood, plasma, and tissue product supplier. She also has led a fund-raising effort that has generated more than $562 million to assist victims of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, winter storms, and non-weather related disasters. Under her direction, the Red Cross' national network of trained disaster relief workers has grown from 3,200 to almost 21,000. Representing the American Red Cross internationally, she visited Kuwait to assess services being provided to U.S. military personnel and also has visited Red Cross relief operations in famine-stricken Somalia and Mozambique, in Croatia, and in Rwandan refugee camps in the Republic of Congo.
While on an unpaid leave of absence from the Red Cross from Nov. 1995-Jan. 1997, she assisted her husband, former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, in his presidential campaign.
Elizabeth Dole has served five U.S. presidents, most recently when President Bush made her the nation's 20th secretary of labor in 1989. As secretary, she worked to increase safety and health in the workplace, advocated upgrading the skills of American workers, and acted to improve labor-management relations, most notably in helping to resolve the bitter Pittston coal strike in Virgina.
Dole previously had been a member of President Reagan's Cabinet from 1983-87 as secretary of transportation--the first woman to hold that position. During her four-and-a-half-year tenure, she led the government in the initiation of random drug testing, spearheaded the national effort to raise the drinking age to 21, and directed the overhaul of the aviation safety inspection system. She also managed the sale of the government-owned freight railroad, CONRAIL, an action that returned $2 billion to the U.S. Treasury.
Earlier, Dole served six years as a member of the Federal Trade Commission and two years as President Reagan's assistant for public liaison. Her White House service began when she was appointed deputy assistant to President Nixon for consumer affairs in 1971.
A native of Salisbury, N.C., Dole was graduated with distinction from Duke University in 1958 and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She subsequently earned both master's and law degrees from Harvard. Her previous academic honors have included the Radcliffe College Medal and honorary degrees from the College of William and Mary, Dartmouth College, Johns Hopkins University, and Smith College.
###
RSS