Geraldine Ferraro

Geraldine A. Ferraro earned a place in history as the first woman vice-presidential candidate on a national party ticket. Ms. Ferraro was first elected to Congress from New York's Ninth Congressional District in Queens in 1978 and served three terms in the House of Representatives. Her committee assignments in Congress included the Public Works Committee, Post Office and Civil Service Committee, and Budget Committee, where she was a strong voice against the Reagan Administration's economic policies.

Ms. Ferraro also served on the Select Committee on Aging where she was an advocate for the elderly, fighting proposed cuts in Social Security and Medicare. In Congress, Geraldine Ferraro spearheaded efforts to achieve passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. She also sponsored the Women's Equity Act, which ended pension discrimination against women, provided job options for displaced homemakers, and enabled homemakers to open IRAs. Before her decision to run for the U.S. Senate January of 1998, Geraldine Ferraro was a co-host of Crossfire, a political program that airs nightly on CNN.

She is also a partner in the CEO Perspective Group, a consulting firm that advises top executives. In 1994, she was appointed the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Commission by President Clinton. She served as a public delegate to the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in June 1993 and Vice-Chair of the U.S. Delegation at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, September 1995. An active participant in the nation's foreign policy debate, she serves as a Board member of the National Democratic Institute of International Affairs and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Before entering politics, Geraldine Ferraro taught elementary school in the New York City public schools for five years. During that time, she also put herself through Fordham Law School at night. After spending 13 years at home raising her three children, she joined the Queens County District Attorney's Office. There, she started the Special Victims Bureau, supervising the prosecution of sex crimes, child abuse, domestic violence, and violent crimes against senior citizens.

Ms. Ferraro has honorary degrees from a number of colleges and universities nationwide. She currently serves as a board member of the Fordham Law School Board of Visitors, the New York Easter Seal Society, the National Italian American Foundation, the Board of Advocates of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, the Board of Advisors of the National Breast Cancer Research Fund, and the Pension Rights Center. She also is an executive vice president and head of the public affairs practice of The Global Consulting Group, a leading international investor relations and corporate communications firm providing advisory services to publicly traded companies, private firms and governments around the world. In addition to numerous articles, Ms. Ferraro has written two books, Ferraro, My Story, which recounts the 1984 campaign, and Geraldine Ferraro: Changing History.