Raghida Dergham
Columnist and Senior Diplomatic Correspondent
London-based Al Hayat
United States of America

Raghida Dergham is Senior Diplomatic Correspondent and Columnist for Al-Hayat, the leading independent Arabic daily newspaper.  A Lebanese-born American citizen, she has a long and distinguished career in both print and broadcast.  Currently a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC networks in the US as well as LBC in Lebanon, she is also Contributing Editor for the LA Times syndicate ‘Global Viewpoint’ and has contributed to the New York Times, The Washington Post, the IHT and Newsweek Magazine.  
Her broadcast career as a senior political commentator included regular stints on PBS’ ‘Charlie Rose’ show and ‘The News Hour’, CNN, Fox News, ABC, CBS and Al-Jazeera as well as radio guest appearances on the BBC and NPR.  Over the course of her career she has interviewed over 20 Heads of Stateand 50 foreign ministers including Egypt’s President Murarak, Pakistan’s President Musharref, US President George W Bush, Russia’s Boris Yeltsin, Indonesia’s President Suharto and Sweden’s Olof Palme.  She is also the only journalist to have interviewed Ramzi Youssef, the alleged mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing.
A member of the Council on Foreign Relations and appointed by Kofi Annan to the UN Task Force on Reorientation of Public Information, she is also a regular participant at the World Economic Forum in Davos and the Dead Sea.  A graduate of the State University of New York (SUNY), Plattsburgh, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters in 2003 and is a Distinguished Alumna in their Hall of Fame.