About our speaker, Dr. Mark Elovitz:

World class expertise coupled with high class presentation combine to make Dr. Elovitz a first class world affairs commentator. For the past decade, Dr. E. has been presenting World Affairs Hot Spot presentations to international acclaim. Indeed, Singapore's Prestige Lifestyle Magazine (2012 Edition) featured Dr. Elovitz as a "seminal visionary."  But, Dr. E. responds that he is simply blessed with strategic hindsight.

Prior to lecturing around the world, Dr. Elovitz served as a professor of law, a litigator, a government advisor and a U.S. Air Force Officer. As a Phi Beta Kappa scholar, he has earned four post-graduate degrees.

Dr. Elovitz has published hundreds of articles. His wide ranging subjects have addressed legal liability, biomedical ethics, American public policy, world affairs and international geopolitics. Some of Dr. Elovitz’s colorful commentaries include: “Whose Lunch Is The Dragon Eating?” “The Machievellian Mideast," "Bear Claws and Dragon Breadth,” “Will the Dragon Devour The Elephant Or Get Stomped?” “Iranian Doublespeak,” "The Thirst For Water Not Oil" and "Who's Getting (Or Not Getting) Fracked By Oil Prices?"

In addition, Dr. Elovitz has authored a monthly newspaper column which focused on the enhanced delivery of healthcare. He has also been the lively and often provocative anchor/commentator for a weekly World Affairs T.V. show.

Dr. Elovitz has lived in both the Mideast and Europe. He frequently visits sixteen Moslem countries as well as many South and Southeast Asian nations. As a United States Air Force Officer, he was liaison to American military stationed throughout Europe, England and Africa.  In that capacity, he received the U.S.A.F. Commendation Medal for “Exemplary Pedagogic Skill.”

Additionally, Dr. Elovitz served in Washington during the Carter and Reagan Administrations as a government advisor on public policy.  Dr. Elovitz has testified before the U.S. Congress’ Committee on Foreign Affairs. He has also been a participant in the U.S. Naval War College’s Current Strategy Forum.  Currently, Dr. Elovitz is Director of the Centre For Strategic Geopolitics, a world affairs think tank.

Dr. Elovitz is recognized for his penetrating insights into and astute assessments of global affairs.  His distinctive careers, extensive worldwide travels and diverse international contacts produce presentations with uncommon depth and unique understandings of world affairs. He deftly provides the unjaded content and context which are often sadly absent from the print and broadcast media. As a result, Dr. E’s dynamic presentations are colorful, illuminating and decidedly thought-provoking.

About our speaker, Tanvi Madan:

Tanvi Madan is a fellow in the Project on International Order and Strategy in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, and director of The India Project. Madan’s work explores Indian foreign policy, focusing in particular on India’s relations with China and the United States. She also researches the intersection between Indian energy policies and its foreign and security policies. Madan’s book Fateful Triangle: How China Shaped US-India Relations during the Cold War will be published later this year. She is currently completing a monograph on India’s foreign policy diversification strategy. Previously she was a Harrington doctoral fellow and teaching assistant at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. Madan has also previously been a research analyst at Brookings, and worked in the information technology industry. In addition to a Ph.D. In Public Policy from the University of Texas at Austin, she has a master’s degree in international relations from Yale University and a bachelor’s degree with honors in history from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, India. She has authored a number of publications on India's foreign policy, and been cited by media outlets such as the Associated Press, The Economist, Financial Times, The New York Times, and the The Washington Post. Madan has also appeared on a number of news shows, including the BBC, CBS, Channel NewsAsia, CNBC, Fox News, NDTV, NPR, and PBS.

Our national conference (April 25-26 in D.C.) will focus on "U.S. Interests in Latin America." Our dinner and discussion with Ana Rosa Quintana will serve to brief us on some of the issues we will discuss in April. 

Ana Rosa Quintana is a Senior Policy Analyst at The Heritage Foundation, where she leads the foundation’s efforts on U.S. policy toward Latin America. 

She has authored numerous policy studies included but not limited to Cuba, Venezuela, and Central America. In addition to writing policy papers, Quintana’s articles have appeared inReal Clear World, The National Interest, The Federalist,among others. Her work has been cited in media venues such asThe Washington Post, Bloomberg Business, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journaland has been a commentator on media outlets like Fox News, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera. She has also testified before the U.S. Congress.

Quintana holds a Master of Arts degree in global security studies and a bachelor’s degree in political science, both from Florida International University. She also received certificates in National Security, Latin American and Caribbean studies. She was a scholar in the university’s Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship Studies.

She’s fluent in Spanish and studied in Minas Gerais, Brazil, on a scholarship sponsored by the Department of Defense.

She is a current National Security Fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former Penn Kemble Democracy Forum Fellow with the National Endowment for Democracy.

Prior to joining Heritage, she was a student trainee at the Defense Intelligence Agency. She also held internships at Virginia-based International Relief and Development, where she worked on rule of law issues in Latin America, and at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she worked on civilian-military cooperation.

Quintana was born and raised in Miami. She currently resides in Virginia.