"Hazel Reid O'Leary" (May 17, 1937)

Was the seventh United States Secretary of Energy from 1993 to 1997,appointed by President Bill Clinton.As of 2009,she is the first and only woman  and first and only African American to hold the position.Since 2004 she has served as president of Fisk,an historically black college.Born in Newport News,Virginia,to Dr.Russell E.and Dr. Hazel Palleman Reid.She has a sister Edna Reid.Her parents divorced and each remarried.She and Edna have half-siblings Marina,Louis and William Morse.After earning a bachelor's degree at Fisk University in Nashville,she earned her Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree from Rutgers School of Law.Hazel married Carl G. Rollins, Jr., with whom she had a son,also name Carl.They later divorced.She married John F.'OLeary,the former Deputy Secretary of Energy,on April 24,1980.He died in 1987.She worked as a prosecutor in New Jersey and was later a partner in the consulting firm of Coopers & Lybrand.During the Carter Administration,Hazel was appointed assistant administrator of the Federal Energy Administration,general counsel of the Community Services Administration,and administrator of the Economic Regulatory at the newly created Department of Energy. In 1981,Hazel and her husband established the consulting firm of [O'Leary & Associates,where she served as vice president and general counsel.From 1989 to 1993,she worked as an executive vice president Northern State Power Company.In 1993 President Bill Clinton nominated Hazel as Secretary of Energy.In this position she won plaudits for declassifying Cold War-era records,which showed the U.S. Government had used American citizens as guinea pigs in human radiation experiments,as had long been long rumored.President Clinton issued Executive order 12891,which created the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE) to prevent such abuses of power.During Hazel service was criticized in a GAO audit of traveling too frequently and spending too much on accommodations.She apologized to Congressional committees in 1996 for spending which exceeded limits on the funds appropriated to the agency for travel,and resigned in January  1997.In 1997 Johnny Chung, a Democratic political donor, claimed that Hazel met with Chinese oil officials after he gave $25,000 to her favorite charity Africare in 1995.FBI director Louis Freeh urged an independent investigation.Attorney General Janet Reno determined there was "no evidence of wrongdoing by Hazel.In 2004 Hazel was selected as President of her undergraduate Alma mater,Fisk University,historically black college in Nashville Tennessee.As president, she has helped the university recapture its place in competing for top students and financial support,and has has attracted outstanding faculty.While she has accomplished major fundraising,the university continues to build its endowment.She has been considering a proposal from a museum in Arkansas to purchase a half-share in the Alfred Stieglitz Collection,which would raise money for the university and enable the collection to be more widely viewed.It was bequeathed to Fisk by his widow and fellow artist Georgia 0'Keeffe on the condition that it never be sold.Fisk appealed to the Chancery Court to be released from the condition prohibiting sale. The court directed the State Attorney General to develop an alternative plan to keep the collection in Nashville and the State.In September 2010 Attorney Bob D.Cooper proposed the collection would be transferred to the Tennessee Arts Commission and housed at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville.It would be identified as the "Alfred Stieglitz Collection at Fisk University." The proposal is a joint state,city and museum project.