Ana Rosa Quintana is Policy Analyst, Latin America and the Western Hemisphere at The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies. She leads the foundation’s efforts U.S. policy toward Latin America.  She concentrates largely on issues of security cooperation, democratic governance and economic freedom.

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 in The National Interest, The Federalist, Diario de las Americas, among others. Her work has been cited in media venues such as The Washington Post, Bloomberg Business, The Guardian, Deutsche Welle and has been a commentator on media outlets like Fox News, MSNBC, and Al Jazeera.

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.

Fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese, Quintana studied in Minas Gerais, Brazil, on a scholarship sponsored by the Department of Defense.

Before joining Heritage in 2013, 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 Washington, D.C