Nancy Youssef, McClatchy's chief Pentagon correspondent, focuses her coverage on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Besides covering the building, she travels frequently to Iraq and Afghanistan to see how the policies crafted in Washington reach Afghans, Iraqis and the troops alike.

She is also president of the Pentagon Press Association.

Before covering the Pentagon, she spent four years covering the Iraq war, most recently as Baghdad bureau chief. Her pieces focused on the everyday Iraqi experience, civilian casualities and how the U.S.'s military strategy was reshaping Iraq's social and political dynamics.

She joined the Washington Bureau in August 2005. Before that, she was a reporter for the Detroit Free Press, covering legal issues. While at the Free Press, she traveled throughout Jordan and Iraq for Knight Ridder, covering the Iraq war from the time leading up to it through the post-war period. She began her journalism career at the Baltimore Sun.

She has won several awards for her work including the University of Virginia's Lawrence Hall Award for Distinguished Journalism covering the Middle East, the Maryland-D.C. Delaware Press Association and the Detroit chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. A Washington, D.C.-area native, she earned a bachelor's degree in Economics from University of Virginia and is currently working on a Master’s degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. Her parents are from Egypt, and she has been visiting the region all of her life. She speaks Arabic.