Shannon O’Neil

Shannon K. O’Neil is the Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director of the Civil Society, Markets, and Democracy Program at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on Latin America, U.S.-Mexico relations, global trade, corruption, democracy, and immigration, O’Neil directed CFR’s Independent Task Force on North America: Time for a New Focus, as well as the Independent Task Force on U.S.-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality. O’Neil is the author of Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead (Oxford University Press, 2013), which analyzes the political, economic, and social transformations Mexico has undergone over the last three decades and why these changes matter for the United States. She is a frequent guest on national broadcast news and radio programs and her written commentary has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Affairs Latinoamerica, Americas Quarterly, Foreign Policy, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and USA Today, among others. O’Neil has testified before Congress on both Mexico and Latin America, and regularly speaks at global academic, business, and policy conferences. She also blogs on Latin America’s Moment, where she analyzes regional policy, and on the Development Channel, where she highlights debates and new approaches to addressing opportunity and exclusion in the global economy. O’Neil is a member of the board of directors of Rassini Sab de CV (RASSINICPO:Mexico) and serves on the advisory committee for the Inter-American Foundation. She has lived and worked in Mexico and Argentina, and travels extensively in Latin America. She was a Fulbright scholar; a Justice, Welfare, and Economics fellow at Harvard University; and has taught Latin American politics at Columbia University. Before turning to policy, O’Neil worked in the private sector as an equity analyst at Indosuez Capital and Credit Lyonnais Securities. She holds a BA from Yale University, an MA in international relations from Yale University, and a PhD in government from Harvard University.