Yasmeen Altaji is a multimedia journalist reporting on the politics, culture and art of the Middle East and North Africa.

She is an experienced reporter and producer well-versed in politics, foreign affairs, and business reportage.

Currently a podcast producer based in Abu Dhabi at international English-language publication The National News, she earned her M.A. in Journalism with a Politics concentration from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism as a recipient of the Gordon and Maggie Gray Fellowship for International Reporting and holds a B.S. in Journalism and a B.Mus. in Voice and Opera from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications and a B.Mus. in voice and opera from the University’s Bienen School of Music. She is the founder and editor of The Word, an independent news organization serving the global Assyrian community. While a student, she was a part-time copy editor at several Axios local channels. Her reporting on US politics, the Israel-Gaza war, Middle Eastern arts and culture and more has appeared in outlets including the BBC, CNN, Al Jazeera English, Middle East Eye, Scene Noise, and the CBC.

In 2023, Yasmeen’s work on The Word won Best Podcast in the regional division of the SPJ Mark of Excellence Awards. In 2022, she was recognized as a finalist in the same category. In the 2022-2023 academic year, she was selected to participate in Northwestern University’s Knight Lab, where she worked with a cohort on research and development of NFT-based subscription models for news outlets.

Yasmeen's reporting has connected her with sources in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, and the United States and has manifested in her written articles, audio stories and photo essays. She is a native English speaker fluent in Arabic, Assyrian and Spanish.