Oxon Hill High School Alumni
Oxon Hill, Maryland (MD)
Dr. Carol Jane Lancaster, Phd Obituary
Dr. Carol Jane Lancaster, Phd attended Oxon Hill High School in Oxon Hill, MD. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Dr. Carol Jane Lancaster, Phd.
| Graduation Year | Class of 1960 |
| Date of Passing | (unknown) |
| About | (no additional information) |
Steven Skolochenko '60 said:
Carol J. Lancaster, a former State Department official who, as a scholar and dean at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, was among the first to highlight the importance of women’s empowerment as a key part of diplomacy and international development, died Oct. 22 at her home in Washington. She was 72.
The cause was a brain tumor, said her son, Douglas Farrar.
Dr. Lancaster was an assistant secretary of state for Africa before joining the faculty of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in 1981. She took a leave of absence from her academic work to serve as deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development from 1993 to 1996.
In that role, she often traveled to developing countries with then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. With Clinton and former secretary of state Madeleine K. Albright, Dr. Lancaster helped establish the Vital Voices Global Partnership, a Washington-based organization promoting the international empowerment of women.
“Carol was an innovator in the field of international development and made an indelible contribution to American foreign policy,” Albright said in a statement released by Georgetown, where she is a professor of diplomacy. “In her work, she made clear the important force for good the United States must play in the world.”
After becoming dean of Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service in 2010, Dr. Lancaster launched master’s degree programs in Asian studies and global human development and organized Georgetown’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security.
The institute’s executive director, Melanne Verveer, said Dr. Lancaster recognized as early as the 1980s that there was a link between women’s issues and other matters related to international development and foreign policy.
“She recognized these were issues whose time had come,” Verveer said. “She’s had a significant mark in growing global citizenship and enabling women to see they had a broader role in society. In many ways, she played a pioneering role.”