Cecilia Farfán-Méndez

Cecilia Farfán-Méndez is Head of the North American Observatory at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). Before joining GI-TOC, Cecilia was Head of Research at the Center for U.S-Mexican Studies at UC San Diego.

Cecilia has extensive experience with policy engagement, testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary and the House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary on issues related to the U.S-Mexico border and criminal markets. She regularly guest lectures at the U.S. Foreign Service Institute and has trained public officials from the U.S, Latin America, Caribbean, and Europe. In multilateral settings, she has consulted for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Organization of American States, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), the United States Institute of Peace, and USAID.

Cecilia holds affiliations  with the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and the Center for Studies on Security, Intelligence, and Governance (CESIG) at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). A Fulbright scholar, Cecilia received her doctorate in political science from UC Santa Barbara, her master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and her bachelor’s in international relations from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM).