Brief Narrative.
Setareh is an award-winning journalist, a media executive and Iran expert at the Voice of America. She has worked in different capacities as an investigative human rights journalist, foreign correspondent, main news anchor, TV program and digital platform developer and network news director. Passionate to gather and disseminate news and information particularly to countries where democracy is suppressed, free press prohibited, and human rights disregarded. An Iranian newspaper called her “the enemy of the State who is stopping traffic in her hours of broadcast”. Strong leader continuously rewarded with greater responsibilities to manage 24/7 operation. Proficient in English, French and Farsi; doctorate in history, with specialization on the Middle East from the University of Paris. Master’s Degree in Political Science from the Sorbonne. Career-long focus on human rights, civil rights, press freedom.
Setareh was born in a political family and exposed to politics from a very young age. Her late father, Mohammad Derakhshesh, prominent political activist and former minister of education, who endured house arrests and imprisonment, became a force for education reform and against government corruption through his lifelong struggle for democracy. In 1961, he led the first teachers and professors strike in Iran’s modern history that spread to all the sectors of the economy and became a national strike that led to the fall of the prime minster and the government.
Dr. Derakhshesh, an ardent nationalist who believed in a secular democratic government for his nation, continued his fight for democracy and opposition to the current regime, and was sentenced to death by the Islamic Republic – current regime – for his refusal to cooperate with the founder of the Iranian revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini. He fled Iran, freed by his jailer, who was one of his former students and continued to speak against the Islamic Republic.
Public Service.
Public service and fight for social justice have been the focus of Setareh’s career from the moment she set foot on American soil.
During her career, as a strong leader and innovative strategist, she was continuously rewarded with greater responsibilities. Tasked in 2019 by the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), she successfully launched and managed the hour-to-hour operations and long-term strategic and program direction of the first Voice of America Persian 24/7 TV and digital media channel. USAGM’s Acting CEO described her supervision and management of this complex project in 2019-20 as outstanding “owing to her ability to keep a very complex and high-priority division performing at a very high level”. The channel experienced an unprecedented surge in digital media and TV viewership and reached 23% of adults in Iran, exceeding management targets. I also initiated and established the structure of partnerships with CNN, ABC News, National Geographic TV and the Smithsonian Channel and successfully collaborated with them for high-quality acquisitions.
On several occasions, she briefed congressional staff on the work of the VOA Persian. She has participated as an Iran expert in panels, symposiums, panel discussions, and has written about the current political situation in Iran in the New York Times and the Jerusalem Post.
Before her tenure as Director of the VOA Persian, she served as foreign correspondent, White House correspondent, producer, main news anchor, and TV program and digital platform developer. She worked fearlessly to defend freedom of expression and expose inequalities, the abuse of power and authoritarianism by regimes in the Middle East. Her work extends beyond the Middle East. She has covered human rights violations and women’s rights in parts of Africa, Burma, China, Syria, and Turkey, worked with Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Reporters without Borders, U.N. Human Rights Council and Freedom House and spent time at the largest refugee camp for Syrians fleeing the civil war.
As a former adjunct faculty of French Studies at American University and Georgetown University with a track record of success in student evaluation, she also has a long record of academic teaching and research.
Education is the most powerful tool you can use to change the world.