Elizabeth Hanford Dole (born 1936), has worked as a lawyer, White House aide, cabinet officer, senator, and president of the American Red Cross.

Elizabeth Hanford Dole was born and grew up in Salisbury, North Carolina, the daughter of wholesale flower dealers. She was a political science major at Duke University, received a master's degree in education from Harvard in 1960, and graduated from Harvard Law School in 1965 as one of 25 female graduates in a class of 500. Dole was often described as friendly, gracious, and "brainy," attributes which led to her election as college May Queen and student body president as well as to Phi Beta Kappa and the national honor society.

After law school Dole went to Washington, where she earned a reputation as a consumer advocate in (what was then) the Department of Health, Education and Welfare; as executive director of the Presidential Committee for Consumer Interests; and as...