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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release June 4, 1996

             PRESIDENT CLINTON NAMES MADELEINE MAY KUNIN AS 
                     U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SWITZERLAND

President Clinton announced today his intent to nominate Madeleine May Kunin of Shelburne, Vermont, to be U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland.

Ms. Kunin is currently the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. She also serves as a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Folklife Center; a member on the President's Task Force on Affirmative Action; and a member on the President's Council on Sustainable Development. In 1991 she founded the non-profit Institute for Sustainable Communities located in Montpelier, Vermont. Ms. Kunin was the first woman governor of Vermont and was the first woman governor in the nation to serve three terms. In the past, she has led trade missions to Japan, Switzerland, Germany and Canada. She initiated a sister state partnership between the state of Vermont and Karelia in Russia. She was recently a United States delegate to The Fourth World Conference for Women in Beijing. She is fluent in German and French.

Ms. Kunin was born on September 28, 1933 in Zurich, Switzerland. She earned cum laude a B.S. from the University of Massachusetts, an M.S. from Columbia University, School of Journalism and an M.A. from the University of Vermont in English Literature. She has also earned numerous honorary degrees from various colleges and universities. Ms. Kunin resides in Washington, D.C.

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