Swanee Hunt

Hunt was born May 1, 1950, in Dallas, Texas, the youngest of four children born to the oil tycoon H.L. Hunt and Ruth Ray. However, not until her father's first wife died did Swanee Hunt's parents marry in 1957 and it was only then that she and her siblings moved into the Hunt mansion, built to resemble its namesake, Mount Vernon.{{Cite web|title=Collection: Swanee Hunt papers {{!}} Smith College Finding Aids|url=https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/970|access-date=2020-06-29|website=findingaids.smith.edu}}{{Cc-notice|cc=by3}}

Hunt grew up in Dallas, Texas, where she attended the Hockaday School.{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/halflifeofzealot00hunt|url-access=registration|title=Half-Life of a Zealot|first=Swanee|last=Hunt|date=October 4, 2006|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=9780822338758|access-date=August 3, 2016|via=Internet Archive}} She lived for many years in Denver, Colorado, where she was active in many community and philanthropic activities. Her several siblings include sisters Helen LaKelly Hunt and June Hunt.

While Hunt had hoped to attend college in the east, her ultra-conservative father refused, so Hunt began college in her hometown at Southern Methodist University. Hunt earned her BA in philosophy from Texas Christian University, an MA in psychology from Ball State University, and an MA in religion and a doctorate in theology from Iliff School of Theology.{{cite web|url=http://studylib.net/doc/8367952/ambassador-swanee-hunt-s-cv|title=Ambassador Swanee Hunt's CV|access-date=July 11, 2017}}

Hunt was appointed in 1993 as ambassador to Austria, where she was notable for writing a weekly newspaper column and radio program.{{Cite web|title=Milestones|url=https://www.swaneehunt.org/milestones/|access-date=2020-06-29|website=Swanee Hunt}}

In 1997, Hunt helped establish the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard Kennedy School. Since stepping down as Director of the Program in 2008, she has continued on at the Kennedy School as the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy.

At age 20, Hunt married Mark Meeks, a seminary student. Hunt gave birth to daughter Lillian in 1982, and the marriage dissolved soon after.

In 1985, Hunt married conductor Charles Ansbacher, who died on September 12, 2010.

She has three children, among them filmmaker Henry Ansbacher, and three grandchildren.

{{Library resources box|by=yes|viaf= 68619276}}Her book This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace won the 2005 PEN/New England Award for non-fiction{{cite web |title=News Release - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum |url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/About-Us/News-and-Press/Press-Releases/JFK-Library-to-Host-2005-Hemingway-PEN-and-LL-Winship-PEN-New-England-Literary-Awards.aspx |access-date=August 3, 2016}} and includes a foreword by former president Bill Clinton.

• {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cPRth-Nsti0C&q=Swanee+Hunt|title=This Was Not Our War|year=2001|isbn= 978-0-8223-3355-5|publisher=Duke University Press}}
• {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/halflifeofzealot00hunt|url-access=registration|quote=Swanee Hunt.|title=Half-Life of a Zealot|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2006|isbn= 978-0-8223-3875-8}}
• {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/worldsapartbosni00hunt|quote=Swanee Hunt.|title=Worlds Apart: Bosnian Lessons for Global Security|year=2011|isbn=978-0-8223-4975-4|publisher=Duke University Press}}
• {{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/rwandanwomenrisi00hunt|title=Rwandan Women Rising|publisher=Duke University Press|year=2017|isbn=978-0-8223-6257-9|url-access=registration}}

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{{Commons category}}

• {{IMDb name|2506545}}
• {{C-SPAN|64569}}
• [https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/2/resources/970 Swanee Hunt papers] at the Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College Special Collections

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{{succession box

| title= U.S. Ambassador to Austria

| before= Roy M. Huffington

| after= Kathryn Walt Hall

| years= 1993–1997

}}

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{{US Ambassadors to Austria}}

{{Colorado Women's Hall of Fame}}

{{National Women's Hall of Fame}}

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Category:1950 births

Category:Living people

Category:Ambassadors of the United States to Austria

Category:Hunt family

Category:Harvard Kennedy School faculty

Category:People from Dallas

Category:Texas Christian University alumni

Category:Ball State University alumni

Category:Hockaday School alumni

Category:American women ambassadors