Rice, 44, was named to the ambassadorship Monday by U.S. President-elect Barack Obama in Chicago.

A one-time National Security Council staffer, Rice was named by U.S. President Bill Clinton to be Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs in 1997 under her mentor and close friend, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

In that job, Rice, who grew up in Washington and studied at Stanford and Oxford universities, worked to "integrate Africa into the global economy while at the same time aiming to increase U.S. national security," a higher education journal said.

Rice told Newsweek in 1998 critics who thought a young woman couldn't lead U.S. policy in Africa were wrong.

"(African leaders) have no choice but to deal with me on professional terms," she told the magazine. "I represent the United States of America. Yeah, they may do a double take, but then they have to listen to what you say, how you say it and what you do about what you say."