Bahareh Moradi was born in Tehran during the Iran-Iraq war and moved to the United States at the age of three. She grew up in northern Virginia and continues to live there today. Bahareh joined the U.S. Department of State in May 2004 as a special projects officer in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. She works on international education policy and a variety of special initiatives including academic advising services for Iranian students interested in studying in the United States and the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program, which aims to diversify the U.S. study abroad population by providing thousands of scholarships to U.S. undergraduates with financial need. Her interest in international exchanges results from her background as an immigrant. Additionally, two of her uncles studied in the United States as international students prior to the 1979 revolution.

Bahareh graduated from the University of Virginia in May 2003 with a B.A. in Middle East studies and a minor in international relations. She recently completed a JD as an evening student at American University’s Washington College of Law, where she was also a Dean’s Fellow, providing substantive legal programming and mentoring to first year students.

She is excited to begin a second career practicing law and hopes to focus on immigration policy and employment discrimination. She is fluent in Persian and a dialect spoken in the northern part of Iran, and a novice in Spanish.