Michelle D. Bernard is the president and CEO of the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), Director of Independent Women’s Voice, and an MSNBC political analyst. Bernard is a regular panelist with Hardball with Chris Matthews, Race for the White House with David Gregory and also with The McLaughlin Group and a Sunday columnist with The Examiner.
An attorney by training, Bernard concentrates on domestic and foreign policy matters. As a political and legal analyst, Bernard has spoken on topics as varied as 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 Fast Company magazine, The Legal Times, The New York Daily News, The Washington Business Journal, The Washington City Paper, The Washington Lawyer, The Washington Post, The Washington Post Sunday Magazine, andThe 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, author of the recently released Women’s Progress: How Women are Wealthier, Healthier, and More Independent than Ever Before(Spence Publishing), has appeared on ABC News Now, ABC Radio,America’s Black Forum, BBC Radio, CNBC’s The Dennis Miller Show, CNN’s Paula Zahn NOW and The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, C-SPAN’s Q&A with Brian Lamb and Washington Journal, Court TV’s Catherine Crier Live, Fox News Channel’s America’s Newsroom, Hannity & Colmes, The O’Reilly Factor, Studio B with Shepard Smith, and Live Desk with Martha MacCallum, MSNBC’s Decision ‘08 with Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Morning Joe, MSNBC Live, Race for the White House with David Gregory, and the Verdict with Dan Abrams. She has also been a guest of National Public Radio’s 51% and News and Notes, PBS’s Evening Exchange, This is America with Dennis Wholey, and To the Contrary, the Ed Schultz Show, Voice of America, XM Satellite Radio’s presidential election channel POTUS 08, various hosts with The Power, and various Middle Eastern radio and cable television programs.
Bernard’s opinion editorials and commentaries have appeared in the Washington Examiner, National Review Online, the Nashua Telegraph, the New York Post, the Philadelphia Daily News, The Washington Times, and Townhall.com. Bernard has spoken before numerous organizations and founded IWF’s Iraqi Women’s Democracy Initiative, which assists 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.
Before joining IWF, 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.
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. Bernard is a 2003 graduate of Leadership Maryland.