Cecilia Farfán-Méndez is head of the North America Observatory at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. An expert on Mexican organized crime, U.S.-Mexico security cooperation, and gender mainstreaming, her research centers on the business models of criminal groups. Before joining the Global Initiative, Farfán-Méndez served as head of research at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Farfán-Méndez has extensive experience in policy engagement, having testified before both the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary and the House 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 United States, Latin America, the 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 the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

She holds affiliations with UC San Diego’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and with the Center for Studies on Security, Intelligence, and Governance (CESIG) at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). A Fulbright scholar, Farfán-Méndez earned her PhD in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara, her MA in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and her BA in international relations from ITAM.