Sheila Johnson, Susan Rice Among ELLE Magazine's '10 Powerful Women in DC'

From a political strategist to an award-winning journalist and an ambassador to the U.N., women have taken Washington, DC's political scene by storm. Among them: African-American influentials Sheila Johnson and Susan Rice, who've been named alongside eight other DC power players on ELLE Magazine's "Capital Dames: 10 Powerful Women in DC" list.

The roundup, featured in the April 2012 issue of the magazine, shines a light on women who are breaking barriers in Washington's male-dominated political realm, including 63-year-old entrepreneur and philanthropist Sheila Johnson who keeps busy “connecting the dots…traveling to Haiti with Donna Karan, her favorite designer, to buy merchandise from artisans to sell in her hotels; having a stake in three pro sports teams (including the WNBA’s Washington Mystics, of which she’s the president); chairing the board of governors of Parsons The New School for Design; being a CARE global ambassador; and producing documentaries on AIDS and homelessness," the magazine says.

Likewise, America’s ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, is connecting the dots in her own way, rallying international support for toppling Libya’s Muammar Gadhafi and confronting the dramas around Iran and Syria’s brutal regimes.

Read more about the mark Johnson and Rice are making on DC and beyond, along with the full list of honorees, online or in ELLE's April issue, on stands now.