Biography of Donna Rice

Donna Rice Hughes is president and CEO of Enough Is Enough, an author, speaker and film producer. In her work with Enough is Enough, Hughes has appeared on a variety of outlets as an Internet safety advocate. She first became known as a key figure in a widely publicized 1987 political scandal that contributed to the end of the second campaign of former Senator Gary Hart for the Democratic Party nomination for President.

After she graduated from college, she entered the Miss South Carolina World beauty pageant and won. She went to New York to compete nationally. Rice later moved to Miami, where she worked as a marketing representative for pharmaceutical giant Wyeth Laboratories in South Florida. She also worked as a television commercial actress and appeared in a 1986 episode of the TV series Miami Vice as well as an episode of the soap opera One Life to Live, and played a secretary in the movie The Last Plane Out.

Since 1994, when she became communications director and spokesperson for Enough Is Enough, an American secular nonpartisan non-profit organization whose mission is to make the Internet safer for families and children, Hughes has been an advocate and speaker on the issue of protecting children online. Hughes became president and CEO of the organization in 2002. The organization has produced an Internet Safety 101SM program with the Department of Justice and other partners. She is the executive producer, host and instructor of the Internet Safety 101 DVD series, which ran as a TV series on PBS, garnering Hughes an Emmy nomination in 2012 and the series an Emmy Award in 2013.

Enough Is Enough sponsored a "Children's Internet Safety Presidential Pledge" in 2016, asking presidential candidates to pledge to combat both Internet pornography, including both illegal child pornography and legal adult pornography, if elected president. The Pledge states that if elected President of the United States of America, promises to "uphold the rule of law by aggressively enforcing existing federal laws to prevent the sexual exploitation of children online, including the federal obscenity laws, child pornography laws, sexual predation laws and the sex trafficking laws." Republican U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump signed the pledge, and Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sent a letter of support.

During a period of national political divide following the presidential election, Hughes launched Enough Is Enough's "High Road Campaign" confronting the global epidemic of hate and cyberbullying by promoting civility, common decency and kindness. The campaign's efforts included Hughes' hour-long C-SPAN interview and her op-ed on CNN.com titled "Cruel attacks on Melania Trump obscure her positive role" in support of Melania Trump's cyberbullying platform which had one million readers and 850 comments in the first 24 hours.

Hughes has publicly spoken against articles appearing in Teen Vogue magazine for promoting sexual activity of any kind to teens, sparking an online petition her organization initiated called "Say No To Teen Vogue" after it published Anal Sex: What You Need to Know/How to Do it the Right Way. The petition has generated more than 29,000 signatures calling to "boycott Teen Vogue until this article is retracted and these types of articles cease to be published."

In October 2017, Hughes participated as one of 120 world leaders in the area of Internet safety in Rome, Italy for the "Child Dignity In the Digital World" World Congress to set the global agenda in the fight against child sexual abuse and exploitation in the digital age. The Congress concluded with a papal audience at the Vatican in which Pope Francis applauded the Congress in his address for concentrating with great foresight "on what is probably the most crucial challenge for the future of the human family-the protection of young people's dignity, their healthy development, their joy and their hope."

In November 2017, Hughes joined Candy Carson and others at the invitation of Homemakers for America for the grand opening of the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. to ring the replica of the Liberty Bell, launching a nationwide ringing of bells by churches to calling Americans to come together to "Let Freedom Ring!"

In March 2018, Hughes joined others from the Moms March Movement to speak at a press conference organized by the HomeMakers for America, in Washington D.C. to share the Declaration of Mothers reclaiming culture for truth, family, and freedom. The event also proclaimed March 8 as International Mother's Influence Day and launched "A Day With a Mother."

Under her leadership at Enough Is Enough, Hughes rolled out a Random Posts of Kindness campaign designed to generate a culture of dignity and respect in order to create a safer, more civil Internet. The campaign includes a special initiative, Sweet Tweets.

She co-wrote the story for the May 2000 season finale episode of Touched by an Angel that dealt with online safety. She authored the book Kids Online: Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace and website ProtectKids.com. As a platform issue of Enough Is Enough, she has written and spoken regularly on the harms of online bullying, the relational brokenness of young people, and the need for a safer, kinder and ethical community on and offline.

Hughes was an outspoken supporter of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign. She has also written numerous commentaries that have been published in the L.A. Times, USA Today, Politico, CNN, FOX News and other media outlets.

Hughes has called upon The Walt Disney Company to crack down on unauthorized "Disney porn" on the Internet.