BIOGRAPHY

Rasha Elass is a Syrian-American independent journalist with over 15 years experience reporting from the Middle East. Highlights of her coverage include that of Syria, in peace time and in war. She was often the only member of the international media based undercover inside government-controlled Syria. Her coverage has appeared in Thomson Reuters, LA Times, National Public Radio (NPR), The World (PRI / BBC Radio), International Business Times (IBT.com), Al Jazeera America, The National (UAE-based) and Forbes Arabia, among others. Her work includes commentary on life-at-large in the Middle East, including the Iraqi and Syrian refugee crisis, Islamic finance and local culture. She is the recent recipient of the Logan Fellowship for nonfiction at The Carey Institute for the Global Good, and the John S. Carroll Fellowship at The MacDowell Colony.

Ms. Elass holds a Master of Science degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City, and a Master of Science in Finance from American University in Washington, D.C. Prior to her career in journalism, Ms. Elass was a market analyst at Gartner.

Ms. Elass is currently finishing an ethnographic memoir on Syria. The book draws from her years of reportage inside the country, and her diaries from childhood, which she partly spent in Syria.

Ms. Elass has also launched the Voices Unheard Podcast, which draws on her experience in the Middle East to bring stories to an English-speaking audience from the Arab and Muslim world. 

Ms. Elass has native fluency in Arabic (spoken and written), and proficiency in French. She has an ongoing interest in learning Spanish, Russian, and the deadly Malaysian martial art of Silat. She resides in Washington, D.C. and travels frequently to the Middle East and other areas of interest.

Contact email: shamsrasha@gmail.com