David Gergen

David Richmond Gergen May 9 1942 July 10 2025 was an American political commentator and former presidential adviser who served during the administrations of Richard Nixon Gerald Ford Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton He was a senior political analyst for CNN and a professor of public service and the founding director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Harvard Kennedy School Gergen is also the former editor at large of US News World Report and a contributor to CNNcom and Parade Magazine He has twice been a member of election coverage teams that won Peabody awardsin 1988 with MacNeilLehrer and in 2008 with CNN Gergen joined the Nixon White House in 1971 as a staff assistant on the speechwriting team becoming director of speechwriting two years later He served as director of communications for both Ford and Reagan He also became a senior adviser to the Democrat Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Warren Christopher He graduated with honors from Yale and Harvard Law School and has been awarded 27 honorary degrees