Gayle served as a journalist for nearly ten years covering presidential politics as a producer with the ABC News Political Unit and "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." Since 2005, she has been researching women entrepreneurs starting small and medium-sized businesses in post-conflict economies such as Afghanistan, Bosnia and Rwanda. Her work on entrepreneurs in these countries has been published by The Financial Times, The International Herald Tribune/New York Times Global Edition, and The Christian Science Monitor, as well as The World Bank and its International Finance Corporation, Harvard Business School, and The Center for International Private Enterprise. Gayle has also written from Afghanistan for National Public Radio and the Huffington Post.

In between her assignments covering mid-term and presidential elections, Gayle lived in Spain as a Fulbright scholar researching the future of digital news and in Germany as a fellow with the Robert Bosch Foundation. While in Germany, she reported for the Berlin bureau of The Wall Street Journal and contributed to a book project on German angel investing published in 2003.

Now based in Southern California, Gayle works in financial services for the investment management firm PIMCO and is currently working on a book scheduled for 2010 publication by HarperCollins about a young Afghan entrepreneur whose business supported her family and her community during the Taliban years.

In 2008 Gayle was chosen to be part of the International Center for Research on Women’s New Leaders Circle. She has also served as a Gala Board Member for Women in International Security, a Board Member for Bpeace and a consultant to the World Bank's gender division.

Gayle received her Bachelors of Journalism from the University of Missouri graduating summa cum laude and her Masters in Business Administration from Harvard Business School, where she received the 2006 Dean's Award for her work on women's entrepreneurship. She speaks Spanish, German, French and basic Dari.

Blog Entries by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Eight Years On: The View From Afghan Women

Posted October 7, 2009 | 10:06 AM (EST)


Eight years after the first US attack on Taliban positions in their country, Afghans are waiting to see what the Americans will decide when it comes to facing a resurgent Taliban ready to retake parts of the country and perhaps its capital once more. Among those watching most closely are...

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Afghan Women Train for the Trail

1 Comments | Posted July 14, 2009 | 12:14 PM (EST)


At a morning session in the basement of a sprawling three-story home doubling as an office, a handsome woman in an ivory head scarf and open-toed black heels talks campaign tactics to a dozen women around a horseshoe-shaped table.

"You must think about what your objective is," she begins. "That...

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In Kabul: Progress, Pop Culture, and Politics

1 Comments | Posted June 27, 2009 | 02:41 PM (EST)


Signs of progress can be spotted around Kabul.  Among the most picturesque: newly lighted homes pressed up against the hillside. At dusk they form electric constellations stepping out to offer some cheer amid the mud and dust which surround them.  The transmission of electricity from neighboring Uzbekistan also means the...

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Women's Rights and the Rush for the Exit in Afghanistan

Posted April 22, 2009 | 06:20 PM (EST)


Recently a slew of pieces have noted -- and sometimes bemoaned -- the fast-approaching fact that Afghan women are likely to see their rights recede in the rush to reach a deal with the Taliban. The latest of these notes in the Financial Times that:


Nato is...

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On The Ground In Afghanistan: Waiting For November 4

Posted October 27, 2008 | 03:51 PM (EST)


Afghanistan's next generation is avidly watching to see what the US electorate decides come November 4. Voters 7,000 miles away are an object of keen curiosity among Kabul's young and educated.

Seven years after the US invasion, citizens speak of the international community's push to rebuild their country in...

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