Michelle D. Bernard is the chairman, founder, president and CEO of the Bernard Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy and is an MSNBC political analyst. Ms. Bernard is a regular panelist with Hardball with Chris Matthews, The Dylan Ratigan Show and The McLaughlin Group. Also, Ms. Bernard is a regular guest commentator on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, a guest host of CBS radio’s The Big Talker on Philadelphia’s WPHT, and is a political commentator for The Hill’s Congress Blog. Ms. Bernard is the author of Women’s Progress: How Women Are Wealthier, Healthier and More Independent Than Ever Before and is a contributing author to the National Urban League’s State of Black America and Lifetime Network’s Secrets of Powerful Women: 25 Successful American
Politicians Tell How They Got Where They Are – And What It’s Like. In 2009, Ms. Bernard created, co-produced and hosted MSNBC’s historic television program, About Our Children, featuring Dr. Bill Cosby. The program, which explored poverty and education reform, aired on MSNBC on September 20, 2009. Ms. Bernard is a 2003 graduate of Leadership Maryland and is a member of the Women’s Forum of Washington, D.C. and the Digital Learning Council. Additionally, Ms. Bernard is a director of the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence, the National Women’s History Museum, and St. Columba’s Episcopal Nursery School.

An attorney by training, Ms. Bernard concentrates on domestic and foreign policy matters. As a political and legal analyst, Ms. Bernard has spoken on topics as varied as the historic 2008 presidential campaign and election, various Congressional and gubernatorial campaigns and elections, the political participation and voting trends of African Americans and women, education reform and school choice, energy policy and security, foreign policy and national security issues, the war in Iraq, and advancing democracy, economic liberty, and the human rights of women and ethnic and religious minorities in the Middle East. Ms. Bernard has been featured in several publications, including Essence.com, Fast Company magazine, Jamaque magazine, The Legal Times, Newsmax magazine, The New York Daily News, The Washington Business Journal, The Washington City Paper, The Washington Lawyer, The Washington Post, The Washington Post Sunday Magazine, and The Washington Times. In July 2008, Newsmax magazine named Bernard as one of three “Fast Trackers” on its list of the nation’s top opinion leaders.

Ms. Bernard has appeared on ABC News Now, ABC Radio, BBC Radio, CNN’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, C-SPAN’s Q&A with Brian Lamb and Washington Journal, Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom, Hannity & Colmes, The O’Reilly Factor, Studio B with Shepard Smith, and Live Desk with Martha MacCallum, HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher, MSNBC’s Decision ’08 with Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Morning Joe, and MSNBC Live, and NBC’s Today show and Nightly News Weekend Edition. She has also been a guest of National Public Radio, PBS’s This is America with Dennis Wholey and To the Contrary, XM Satellite Radio’s presidential election channel POTUS 08 and various hosts with XM’s The Power, and several Middle Eastern radio and cable television programs.

Ms. Bernard’s opinion editorials and commentaries have appeared in the G8 Summit magazine, US News and World Report, the Washington Examiner, National Review Online, the Nashua Telegraph, the New York Post, the Philadelphia Daily News, The Washington Times, and Townhall.com. Ms. Bernard has spoken before numerous organizations and founded the Independent Women’s Forum’s Iraqi Women’s Democracy Initiative, which assisted in the development and implementation of training programs built on the pillars of democracy, women’s rights and religious freedom, political activism in a democracy, issues of governance, free markets, and non-governmental organizations.

Ms. Bernard is the former president and CEO of the Independent Women’s Forum. Prior to founding the Bernard Center for Women, Politics & Public Policy and joining IWF, Ms. Bernard had a short stint with the 2000 Bush-Cheney Presidential Inaugural Committee, Inc. Prior to that time, she was a partner at the District of Columbia’s Patton Boggs LLP.

Ms. Bernard holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy and political science from Howard University and a Juris Doctor degree from The Georgetown University Law Center.

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