Hunt, Swanee

Swanee Grace 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. This unusual early childhood and her mother's profoundly fundamentalist faith had a lasting impact on Swanee Hunt's world view. While she had hoped to attend college in the east, her ultra-conservative father refused so Swanee Hunt began college in her hometown at Southern Methodist University. At the age of twenty, she married Mark Meeks, a seminary student, and moved to Fort Worth where she graduated from Texas Christian University in 1972 with a degree in philosophy. A year later, the couple moved to Heidelberg,Germany where Meeks served as pastor for an English-speaking Baptist church. Although she was able to complete a master's degree in counseling, this was a difficult time for Hunt who was unhappy in her marriage and unsure what direction she should take in life. In 1977, the couple returned to the US, settling in Denver where Hunt entered the Iliff School of Theology where she earned a Master's degree in Religion (1979) and a doctorate in Theology (1986). Despite ongoing marital problems, Swanee Hunt gave birth to daughter Lillian in 1982; however, the marriage soon ended. In 1985 she married Charles Ansbacher, a symphonic conductor and divorced father of a teenage son, Henry. In 1987, amidst a growing number of professional responsibilities, Swanee gave birth to Theodore Ansbacher-Hunt.

After her father's death in 1974, Swanee Hunt had a sizable personal fortune at her disposal and throughout the 1970s, she weighed various options of how she could put some of her wealth to good use, creating positive and sustainable social change at the grassroots level. She had long been concerned about mental health issues, education and women's empowerment. Thus, in 1981, the Hunt Alternatives Fund was founded in Denver. According to their Web site, "Hunt Alternatives brings daring goals, distinctive perspectives, innovative practices, and extraordinary talent to some of the world's most complex and injurious challenges...and has contributed more than $100 million to social change through a blend of grantmaking and operating programs." In 1986, Hunt was a co-founder of the Women's Fund of Colorado which she also led for its first six years. More recently, in 2006, with her sister, Helen LaKelly Hunt, Swanee Hunt created Women Moving Millions, an organization designed to encourage women to give large gifts to support programing directed to empower other women, nationally and globally. In honor of her late husband, Charles Ansbacher, who died in 2010, she founded the Free for All Concert Fund which provides free arts programming in the city of Boston.

As her philanthropy focused more and more on issues of public policy, Hunt was increasingly drawn into the world of politics. In 1992, she vigorously campaigned and generously donated to Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential bid. Winning the White House, Clinton first appointed Hunt to his transition team and then named her Ambassador to Austria. She served at the height of the Bosnian War and urged that the US government step up its efforts to secure peace in this embattled region, a message not always well received back home. Nonetheless, Hunt did what she could and directed much of her efforts at women in the affected areas, organizing conferences designed to promote East- West learning, such as "Bosnian Women Stepping into Politics" (1999) and "Vital Voices: Women in Democracy" (1997) at which then First Lady Hillary Clinton gave the keynote address. But by 1997, Hunt was ready for a change and the opportunity to do so came when the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University offered her the task of establishing the Women and Public Policy Program. 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. Since then, Hunt founded and directs the Institute for Inclusive Security, in which "Women are an essential tool to prevent violence, stop war, and restore communities after deadly conflicts." In addition, she focuses on demanding an end to commercial sex around the globe as well as her "Political Parity campaign which works to elect more women to higher office as such "improves policy outcomes and lifts public trust." Most recently, she has been active in Iran and Rwanda, spearheading efforts there to improve the lives of women and girls.

A talented classical composer and photographer, Swanee Hunt is also the author of three books: Worlds Apart: Bosnian Lessons for Global Security (2011); her memoir, Half-Life of a Zealot (2006); and, This Was Not Our War: Bosnian Women Reclaiming the Peace (2004). She has also published dozens of articles in newspapers and journals, both in the US and in Europe, serves on multiple boards and foundations, and has received several honorary degrees and awards, including induction into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2007.

[source: Swanee Hunt's website ]

From the guide to the Swanee Hunt Papers MS 721., 1968-2013 (ongoing), (Sophia Smith Collection)