Kirsten Powers is a New York Times bestselling author, USA Today columnist and CNN senior political analyst where she regularly appears on Anderson Cooper 360, CNN Tonight and The Lead with Jake Tapper. The Washington Post has called her “bright-eyed, sharp-tongued, [and] gamely combative” and “a ferocious advocate for her points of view.” 

Kirsten’s most recent book is SAVING GRACE: Speak Your Truth, Stay Centered and Learn to Coexist with People Who Drive You Nuts (Convergent Books). Jon Meacham called it, “A great gift at an urgent hour” and Kate Bowler praised Saving Grace as a “courageous call to truth and love existing side by side.”

Prior to USA Today, Kirsten was a columnist for the Daily Beast, American Prospect Online and the New York Post. The Columbia Journalism Review called her “an outspoken liberal journalist” in a sea of opposition at Fox News, where she previously served as a political analyst. Her writing has been published in The Washington Post, Elle, The Daily Beast, The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, The New York Observer, Salon, the New York Post, and The American Prospect online.

Before her career in journalism, Kirsten served as a political appointee in the Clinton Administration, worked in New York Democratic politics and consulted for non-profits including Human Rights First and the National Council for Research on Women (now merged with ICRW). She was also Vice President for International Communications at America Online, Inc. where she oversaw the day-to-day communications of AOL businesses outside the United States and developed and executed the public launches of AOL businesses in Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Hong Kong and Australia.

Kirsten graduated from the University of Maryland-College Park with a B.S. in Journalism. Raised in Fairbanks, Alaska, she resides in Washington, D.C. with her husband Robert Draper and a little Shih Tzu rescue named Lucy.