Susan Eisenhower

Eisenhower is the daughter of John Eisenhower and the granddaughter of Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1970, following family tradition, she was presented as a debutante to high society at the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City. ==Career==

Eisenhower is President of the Eisenhower Group, Inc, which provides strategic counsel on political, business, and public affairs projects. She has consulted for Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies doing business in the emerging markets of the former Soviet Union and for a number of major institutions engaged in the energy field. She is also Chairman of Leadership and Public Policy Programs and Chairman Emeritus of the Eisenhower Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C., and in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, owned and operated by Gettysburg College. She served as the president of the Eisenhower Institute twice, and later as chair. During that time, she became known for her work in the former Soviet Union and in the energy field. Since that time, she has also served as an advisor on two other United States Department of Energy studies; one on the threat of nuclear terrorism and the other a blue-ribbon panel on the future of nuclear energy. In 2001, after two terms on the NASA Advisory Council, she was appointed to the International Space Station Management and Cost Evaluation Task Force, which analyzed International Space Station management and cost overruns. She currently sits on the Nuclear Threat Initiative board, co-chaired by Senator Sam Nunn and Ted Turner, the Energy Future Coalition, the US Chamber of Commerce's new Institute for 21st Century Energy, and the Air Force Academy's Eisenhower Center for Space and Defense Studies. She was also appointed to the National Academy of Sciences' standing Committee on International Security and Arms Control, where she served for eight years. She was a keynote speaker at the 2012 Washington & Jefferson College Energy Summit, where the Washington & Jefferson College Energy Index was unveiled. ==Publications==

Eisenhower has written extensively on nuclear and space issues. She is the author of four books: Breaking Free: A Memoir of Love; Mrs. Ike: Memories and Reflections on the Life of Mamie Eisenhower; Partners in Space: US-Russian Cooperation After the Cold War and How Ike Led. She has co-authored The Making of a Soviet Scientist with Roald Sagdeev. She has also edited four books on regional security issues; the most recent – Partners in Space (2004) – was also published by Nayuk, the publishing house of the Russian Academy of Sciences. In 2000, she co-edited a book, Islam and Central Asia: An Enduring Legacy or an Evolving Threat? addressing various issues in foreign and domestic policy, national security, and politics. ==Endorsement of Barack Obama==

Although a lifelong member of the Republican Party, Eisenhower endorsed Barack Obama for president of the United States in 2008. She announced on August 21, 2008, that she was leaving the Republican Party and becoming an Independent. She spoke on the final day of the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Her speech began with, "I stand before you tonight not as a Republican or a Democrat, but as an American." On October 29, 2012, she re-endorsed Barack Obama for a second term in the 2012 presidential election. Her father, John Eisenhower, had similarly left their family's traditional party in 2004 to become an Independent; he endorsed Democratic candidate Senator John Kerry for president in 2004. ==Dwight Eisenhower Memorial controversy==

Along with the rest of her family, Eisenhower has stated her opposition to architect Frank Gehry's proposed design for the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial. She objects to its size, arguing that it is ecologically unsustainable, to the negative symbolism associated with the 80-foot-high metal curtains, and to the design's overall depiction of former President Eisenhower as a young boy rather than a man. In her testimony to Congress on the matter, she said, "The Eisenhower Memorial can and should be a reflection, not only of Eisenhower's lifetime achievements, and the challenging and dangerous times in which he led us; it should also be anthem to our national purpose." ==Personal life==

Eisenhower has been married three times. Her first husband was Alexander H. Bradshaw, a London barrister, They have two daughters, Laura Magdalene Eisenhower and Caroline Eisenhower Bradshaw. Then she married John Mahon, an American lawyer, with whom she had a daughter, Amelia Eisenhower Mahon. Her third marriage was to Russian space scientist Roald Sagdeev, formerly the director of the Russian Space Research Institute. ==Family tree==