Dr. Cecilia Farfán Méndez is Head of the North American Observatory at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. She is an expert on Mexican organized crime, U.S.-Mexico security cooperation, criminal business models, and gender and organized crime. Before joining the Global Initiative, she led research at UC San Diego’s Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies. Farfán-Méndez has testified before the U.S. Congress and consulted for organizations including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the Organization of American States. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from UC Santa Barbara and a master’s degree from Columbia University.
