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.