By Tim Mastro

DOVER — Madeleine Albright was a history maker, said Dr. Donna Patterson.

Dr. Patterson, now the chairwoman of Delaware State University’s Department of History, Political Science and Philosophy and a member of the 2021-2022 class of fellows at the Wilson Center in Washington, was an inaugural faculty member of the Madeline C. Albright Institute at Wellesley College when it was founded in 2010.

Dr. Patterson reflected on the loss of Secretary Albright, the first female U.S. secretary of state, who died Wednesday at the age of 84. Secretary Albright was the highest-ranking woman in the history of the U.S. government at the time when she became secretary of state in January of 1997.

“I think of all the barriers she had to break through as a woman to even get that position,” Dr. Patterson said. “That was a big deal. There were people who I’m sure opposed it because it was a woman taking this position, because they think of these ‘statesmen’ and they think of them as men and not women. So that was major in terms of the history of the United States.”

Secretary Albright was also the United States ambassador to the United Nations from 1993-1997 — only the second women to hold that position.

Dr. Patterson said the glass ceilings Secretary Albright broke through set the stage for more firsts by women in government. She pointed to Kamala Harris becoming the first female vice president last year and the current nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to become the first Black woman named to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“When Madeleine Albright took her post in the mid-90s, remember that wasn’t really that long ago in the grand scheme of things,” Dr. Patterson said.

Dr. Patterson first met Secretary Albright more than 20 years ago in Washington. before later working at the Madeline C. Albright Institute at Wellesley College which is Secretary Albright’s alma mater.

They connected during the planning phase and had several private interactions during various receptions for the institute.

“I found her to be warm, I found her to be approachable, and not just to me, but also very approachable to the students,” Dr. Patterson said. “She was very interested in the future of the institute, but also the future of the students. She was so very accessible for someone of her stature.”