Commentator, editor, teacher, public servant, best-selling author and adviser to presidents — for 30 years, David Gergen has been an active participant in American national life. He served as director of communications for President Reagan and held positions in the administrations of Presidents Nixon and Ford. In 1993, he put his country before politics when he agreed to first serve as counselor to President Clinton on both foreign policy and domestic affairs, then as special international adviser to the president and to Secretary of State Warren Christopher.
David Gergen currently serves as editor-at-large at U.S. News & World Report and as a regular analyst on ABC: Nightline. He is the moderator of World @ Large the 10-part PBS discussion program that premiered in June, 2001. He is also a professor of public service at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and co-directing its Center for Public Leadership. This past fall, he published a book, Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership, Nixon to Clinton.
During 1984-1993, Mr. Gergen worked mostly as a journalist. For some two-and-a-half years, he was editor of U.S. News. Working with the owner and editor-in-chief Mortimer Zuckerman and a revived staff, he helped to guide the magazine to record gains in circulation and advertising. During that period, he also teamed up with Mark Shields for political commentary every Friday night for five years on the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. The two were a popular political team and won numerous accolades for their political coverage.
A native of Durham, North Carolina, Mr. Gergen is an honors graduate of Yale University (A.B., 1963) and the Harvard Law School (LL.B., 1967). He is a member of the D.C. bar. In addition, he served for three-and-a-half years in the U.S. Navy, where he was posted for about two years to a ship home-ported in Japan.
Among his current non-profit boards, he was elected by the alumni to serve on the Yale Corporation, and he is Chairman of the Innovations in American Government National Selection Committee. He frequently lectures in the United States and overseas and holds nine honorary degrees.
He has been married since 1967 to Anne Gergen, a family therapist. They have two children, Christopher and Katherine. They live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.