May 18, 2015

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 18, 2015

WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Obama on May 14, 2015 announced his reappointment of USCIRF Commissioner Dr. James J. Zogby. 

“USCIRF is pleased with the reappointment of Dr. Zogby,” said USCIRF Chair Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett.  “He has provided the Commission with invaluable insight during his first term as a USCIRF Commissioner.  Along with my fellow Commissioners, I look forward to working with him in support of this vitally important human right.”

Dr. James J. Zogby is the founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community.  He is also Managing Director of Zogby Research Services, which specializes in public opinion polling across the Arab world.

Since 1985, Dr. Zogby and AAI have led Arab American efforts to secure political empowerment in the U.S.  Through voter registration, education and mobilization, AAI has moved Arab Americans into the political mainstream.

For the past three decades, Dr. Zogby has been involved in a full range of Arab American issues.  A co-founder and chairman of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign in the late 1970s, he later co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.  In 1982, he co-founded Save Lebanon, Inc., a relief organization which provided health care for Palestinian and Lebanese victims of war. In 1985, Zogby founded AAI.

A lecturer and scholar on Middle East issues, U.S.-Arab relations, and the history of the Arab American community, Dr. Zogby has an extensive media profile in the U.S. and across the Arab World.  He currently serves as Chairman of the Editorial Advisory Committee for SkyNewsArabia. Since 1992, Dr. Zogby has also written a weekly column published in 14 Arab and South Asian countries.

He has authored a number of books, including: Looking at Iran (2013), Arab Voices (2010), What Ethnic Americans Really Think (2002), and What Arabs Think: Values, Beliefs and Concerns (2001).  Dr. Zogby is finishing his first two-year term and currently serves as vice-chairman.

Composed of nine commissioners, USCIRF is an independent, bipartisan federal body that is principally responsible for reviewing the facts and circumstances of violations of religious freedom internationally and making policy recommendations to the President, Secretary of State, and Congress.  USCIRF offers policy recommendations to improve conditions at the critical juncture of foreign policy, national security, and international religious freedom standards.  The President and leadership of both political parties in the Senate and House of Representatives appoint USCIRF Commissioners.

To interview a USCIRF Commissioner, please contact USCIRF at [email protected] or 202-786-0613.