DEARBORN, Mich. - Renowned journalist Diane Rehm has been named Arab American of the Year for 2013, ACCESS announced today. She will be honored at the prestigious 42nd Annual ACCESS Anniversary Dinner on Saturday, April 27, at the Marriott Detroit Renaissance Center.
As Arab American of the Year, Rehm will take her place a distinguished group of past honorees that includes former White House correspondent Helen Thomas; U.S. Sen. Spencer Abraham; entertainers Casey Kasem and Tony Shalhoub; U.A.W. International President Stephen Yokich; U.S. Congressman Nick Rahall; the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee; and St. Jude Hospital.
The daughter of Arab immigrants, Rehm was born and raised in Washington, D.C. For more than 30 years she has been host of The Diane Rehm Show on WAMU in the nation's capital. The program is distributed nationally by National Public Radio with more than 2.4 million listeners. Rehm has interviewed notables including then-Sen. Barack Obama, former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison, and many others. In 2000, she became the first radio talk show host to interview a sitting president (Clinton) in the Oval Office.
Last year, she was featured in Arab Americans, a series of profiles broadcast on PBS stations nationwide.
The Diane Rehm Show was named to the Top 10 list of the most powerful programs in public radio for 2007 and 2008, based on its ability to draw listeners to public radio stations. In 2010, she won a Peabody award (widely considered one of the most prestigious and selective honors in electronic media) for her more than 30 years in public broadcasting
Rehm has been named "Washingtonian of the Year," one of Washington's "100 Most Powerful Women," and one of the "150 Most Influential People in Washington" by Washingtonian magazine. She has been included several times on the magazine's list of the "100 Most Powerful Women," most recently in 2011. She is the author of three autobiographical books: Finding My Voice (Knopf, 1999), in which she describes her childhood, marriage, career, and voice disorder; Toward Commitment: A Dialogue about Marriage (Knopf, 2002), a deeply personal book co-authored by her husband, John; and her most recent book written about her beloved dog, Life With Maxie (Gibbs Smith, 2010).
She was named a Fellow by the Society of Professional Journalists ? the highest honor the society bestows on a journalist. In 2011, she received the Excellence in Journalism Award from the American News Women's Club.
She is a director emerita of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation and a trustee emerita of McDaniel College in Westminster, Md. She has been awarded honorary degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary, Washington College, McDaniel College, and Shepherd University. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, John, and their 6-year-old long-haired Chihuahua, Maxie (short for Maximillian.) The couple has four grandchildren.
