Ray Suarez, award-winning broadcast journalist and celebrated author, brings over thirty years of news experience to Destination Casa Blanca. As host of this ground-breaking public affairs program, Suarez will conduct an hour-long, Washington Roundtable every week with policymakers, elected officials and members of the Democratic and Republican parties from the DCB studios in Washington, DC.

Currently Senior Correspondent for The NewsHour on PBS, which he joined in 1999, Suarez has extensive expertise in the news field. Prior to his work with The NewsHour, he was host of the respected call-in news program "Talk of the Nation" for National Public Radio since 1993. Among his notable contributions in the public radio and television field, Suarez has narrated, anchored or reported many documentaries including a weekly series, Follow the Money (1997, PBS), and programs including yesterday (2006, WETA) Who Speaks for Islam? (LinkTV, 2005) By The People (PBS, 2004-05), The Journey Home (2004, WETA) The Execution Tapes (2001, Public Radio) and Through Our Own Eyes (2000, KQED).

Suarez gas distinguished himself as a Los Angeles correspondent for CNN, a producer for the ABC Radio Network in New York, a reporter for CBS Radio in Rome, and a reporter for various American and British news services in London. Most notably, in 2004 Ray was selected by BBC Radio on a new program called "State of the Union" where he was among a group of U.S.-based writers offering weekly commentaries on topical issues. He continues to host the monthly public radio foreign affairs series "America Abroad" for PRI, and is the narrator for American RadioWorks, the documentary unit of American Public Media.

As author, Suarez has written "The Holy Vote" (Rayo/Harper Collins, 2006) an examination of the tightening relationship between religion and politics in America and "The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration" (Free Press). He has also contributed to others, including "Brooklyn: A State of Mind (Workman, 2001)," "Local Heroes (Norton, 2000)" "Saving America's Treasures (National Geographic, 2000)," "Las Christmas (Knopf, 1998)," and "About Men ( Poseidon, 1986)." His writing has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and many other publications.

Celebrated by his peers and colleagues, Suarez shared in NPR's 1993-94 and 1994-95 duPont-Columbia Solver Baton Awards for on-site coverage of the first all-race elections in South Africa and the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, respectively. Among his many accolades, Suarez notes the 1996 Ruben Salazar Award from National Council of La Raza, Current History's 1995 Global Awareness Award, and the 2005 Distinguished Policy Leadership Award from UCLA's School of Public Policy.

Suarez holds a B.A. in African History from New York University and an M.A. in the Special Sciences from the University of Chicago. He is a winner of the Benton Fellowship in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Chicago and was honored with the Distinguished Alumnus Award from NYU.

A life member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Suarez was a founding member of the Chicago Association of Hispanic Journalists. A native of Brooklyn, New York, he lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife and three children.

David Diaz is a veteran TV correspondent and anchor who has covered major news and produced and written features and breaking stories at both WCBS TV and WNBC TV. He covered four City Hall administrations and many public policy battles and political campaigns, winning five Emmys and numerous other awards for daily reporting and news documentaries. Diaz is currently a Distinguished Lecturer at City College, taught reporting for television at New York University, and has lectured on media, politics, and ethnicity at various colleges. He’s a regular contributing commentator on NY1’s Inside City Hall show and has served as moderator at numerous public policy forums. He is a City College graduate and has an MS from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.