(Washington, DC) — Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is dead at the age of 84 from cancer. She was the first woman U.S. secretary of state, under former President Bill Clinton. Prior to that, she was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012. Her family said she died surrounded by family and friends.

Albright immigrated with her family to the United States in 1948 from Czechoslovakia and she became a U.S. citizen in 1957. By 1976, she had received a Ph.D. from Columbia University and was working for former President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser. Albright worked for several nonprofit organizations during the Republican terms of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the 1980s and early ’90s. Albright served on the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations.