STEPHEN FAIRBANKS
In 1960 I was in a small group that greeted Sen. John Kennedy when he arrived at 1 a.m. at the Michigan Union across from my dorm at U. of Michigan in Ann Arbor. That was when he first articulated his vision for establishing the Peace Corps. I joined the PC as soon as I graduated in 1964 and was sent to Shahrud, Iran as an English teacher in the Iran 4 group. That sent me on a life-long, Iran-related trajectory:
1966-72 as a history teacher in the recently-established Iranzamin Tehran International School
1977: PhD, Near Eastern Studies, University of Michigan
1977-79, Director, Tehran Center, American Institute of Iranian Studies
1982-84, headed translation business for Iran-US Claims Tribunal at The Hague
1984-98, Political analyst for Iran, US Department of State
1998-2003, Radio-Free Europe/Radio Liberty: founded the Persian Service, which evolved into the present Radio Farda
2003-12, and present, Iran analyst for various US government contractors