Meet the Team

Rafael Fernández de Castro

Catheryn Camacho Bolanos

Associate Director
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Catheryn Camacho Bolanos has over 15 years of professional experience in the public sector and academia as a public policy researcher, adviser, lecturer and consultant. She oversees various projects at USMEX. Camacho Bolanos is also an affiliated researcher with the Center for Studies on Security, Intelligence, and Governance (CESIG) at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de Mexico (ITAM) based in Mexico City. Prior to her work at UC San Diego, she was appointed to the Protection Department in the Consulate General of Mexico in San José, California, where she analyzed public policies related to Mexican nationals living in the U.S. She also provided legal advice to Mexican nationals facing issues related to their immigration status, labor condition or civil matters—either in Mexico or the U.S.

She also worked in Financiera Rural, a Mexican government financing agency aimed to provide economic resources to the rural sector. There, she carried out an extensive academic analysis to design and implement a program aimed at financing and providing subsidies to Mexican migrants living in the U.S. As a result of this project, over one hundred million pesos were approved for the development of productive projects for migrants and their families in Mexico. She also developed financial strategies for women and young entrepreneurs in the rural sector.

Later, she worked as a political researcher and international advisor in the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Mexican Senate. She was also appointed Chief of Staff of Senator Gabriela Cuevas. After her experience in the senate, Camacho Bolanos participated in a project titled “Co-Constructing Human Security in Mexico. A Methodology and Action Plan from Communities to the State,” as an academic collaboration ITAM-LSE. She then joined the International Studies Department at ITAM as a lecturer and later became the coordinator of CESIG.

Camacho Bolanos holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), a master’s degree in government and public policy, and a Ph.D. in law from Universidad Panamericana. Her work examines the multiple dimensions of security and their impacts on the design of public policy in the case of the Mexican National Guard.

Cecilia Farfán Méndez

Head of Research
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Cecilia Farfán oversees the center's research and policy engagement activities covering security, migration, democracy and CaliBaja.  She plays a pivotal role collaborating with the center's partner organizations, academics and policymakers to position USMEX as a gathering point for timely discourse and analysis of pressing issues facing Mexico and the bilateral relationship.

Farfán is an expert on organized crime and female participation in criminal groups, and co-founded the Mexico Violence Resource Project, an online platform providing analysis and resources for journalists and policymakers on violence and organized crime in Mexico. She also is an affiliated researcher with the Center for Studies on Security, Intelligence, and Governance (CESIG) at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de Mexico (ITAM) based in Mexico City. 

In addition to her formal academic initiatives, Farfán has consulted for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Organization of American States and the United States Institute for Peace. Farfán is also a member of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, the Urban Violence Research Network and the strategy committee for the Journal of Illicit Economies and Development.

Farfán received her doctorate in political science from UC Santa Barbara, her master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and her bachelor’s in international relations from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). She has been a recipient of several research fellowships including the Fulbright Program, the UC Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and Mexico’s National Council on Science and Technology.

Claudia A. Fernández Calleros

Michael Lettieri

Senior Fellow for Human Rights
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Michael Lettieri is a Senior Fellow for Human Rights at USMEX. His work has explored the political culture and authoritarian politics in 20th Century Mexico, journalism and threats to freedom of expression during the drug war and gender-based violence.

He is the co-founder and managing editor of the Mexico Violence Resource Project and has written broadly about the intersections between democracy, security policy, organized crime and violence. His current work includes a study of foreign media coverage of the Mexican drug war, and an effort to develop new digital tools for documenting disappearances in partnership with local activists in Sinaloa.

He holds a Ph.D. in modern Latin American history from UC San Diego and previously worked at the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego where he managed programs on human rights and the border region.

Mónica Bauer

Coordinator for CaliBaja Working Group
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Monica Bauer oversees the CaliBaja initiatives and immigration programs at the center. Bauer's professional career has focused on intergroup, interfaith, government and public relations. She brings more than a decade experience in a leading national civil rights organization where she successfully developed and maintained strong long-term relationships with community leaders and established strategic partnerships with government, media and nonprofits in the pursuit of combatting hate and discrimination.

Bauer is a Mexico City native and a San Diegan since 1999. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Universidad Iberoamericana and received a Post-Graduate Certificate in U.S.-Mexico Border Studies from El Colegio de la Frontera Norte and UC San Diego Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies School of Global Policy and Strategy.

Bauer was an advisor for the Institute for Mexicans Abroad and a commissioner for the City of San Diego Human Relations Commision where she took a leading role in the proposal for the creation of an office of immigrant affairs that became a reality in 2019.

John B. McNeece III

Senior Fellow for Energy & Trade
Email | 619-888-4889

John McNeece is Senior Fellow for Energy & Trade at USMEX. His work in Mexico extends back to the NAFTA negotiations, where he served as an advisor on issues of Mexican law to the Office of the United States Trade Representative negotiating team for NAFTA Chapter Nineteen: Review and Dispute Settlement in Antidumping/Countervailing Duty Matters.

McNeece’s transactional work in Mexico included legal advice on formation of cross-border joint ventures, acquisition and development of renewable energy projects, complex financial transactions, mergers and acquisitions and venture capital transactions. He has written extensively on the Mexican energy Reform in the power sector.

McNeece is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley Law School. He is also an attorney who worked with the international law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, LLP working out of the firm’s San Diego and New York offices until his retirement from the practice of law in July 2017.  At Pillsbury, he was a member of the Latin America, Energy and Corporate & Securities practices.

Dalia Rincon

USMEX Program Coordinator

Dalia Rincón is a versatile professional with experience in multiple sectors. She holds an undergraduate degree in Political Science from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM). Her diverse work experience includes a stint at a Security and Political Consultancy, where she gained valuable insights into the complex world of politics and security. Additionally, she worked in the Public Opinion department at one of Mexico's largest newspapers, honing her skills in research and analysis. In her most recent role, she worked in the Trade Surveillance Compliance Area at Citi Bank.

Alan Sweedler

Senior Fellow for Energy and Environment
Email | 858-344-2685

Alan Sweedler is Senior Fellow for Energy and Environment at USMEX where his expertise is in the area of energy policy, technology and environmental impacts of energy use, especially climate change and the energy-water nexus. Sweedler was a Congressional Science Fellow and worked in the U.S. Senate on issues of energy, water and national security. He was also a Carnegie Foundation Science Fellow at Stanford’s Center for International Security and Arms Control and was a visiting scholar at the University of California’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation as well as director of the California Energy Commission’s Energy Innovation Small Grants Program. He has edited, co-edited and contributed chapters to books dealing with energy, air quality, security and climate change with a focus on the U.S.-Mexico border region. He recently retired from San Diego State University, where he was associate vice president in charge of the university’s international programs, director of the Center for Energy Studies and a professor of physics. He currently holds a PIMSE Chair as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at CETYS University in Mexico and serves on the Congressionally mandated Good Neighbor Environmental Board (GNEB).

Greg Mallinger