Rudi Bakhtiar currently holds the position of Director of Public Relations for PAAIA. In this role, Rudi will use her decade of experience in television news to help PAAIA present a more positive and accurate image of Iranian Americans to the American public.
Previously, Rudi worked as an international reporter for Fox News, covering a variety of hot button news stories, such as the Iran-Iraq summit between President Ahmadinejad and Prime Minister Al Maleki in Tehran in 2006, as well as the 2006 Midterm elections in Washington D.C.
As a reporter for CNN, Rudi covered conflicts in Rwanda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Israel and Palestine. The first show Rudi anchored for CNN, called CNN Newsroom, was nominated for an Emmy award that year for its coverage of the Bosnian War. In 2002, Rudi was promoted to lead news anchor for CNN Headline News' late show Headline News Tonight, and anchored the network's coverage of Operation Enduring Freedom as well as Operation Iraqi Freedom in the Spring of 2003. Rudi also anchored various shows on CNN, including Anderson Cooper 360, and was on the air live during the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
Rudi joined CNN in 1996 as an intern in the Los Angeles bureau and relocated to the network's world headquarters in Atlanta in 1997 as a video journalist for CNN International. She was a segment producer for CNNfn and helped produce and launch four new business programs out of Hong Kong for CNN International before changing to an on camera position.
Rudi has also been honored for her work by the Iranian American Republican Council, which presented her with the 2002 Achievement Award in recognition of Outstanding Achievements, Excellence and Accomplishments within the Iranian American community.
Born in California, Rudi moved to Iran at the age of five where she lived until 17 when she came back to the U.S. and earned a Bachelor's Degree in Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
