Stephanie Leutert is the Director of the Central America / Mexico Policy Initiative at the Robert Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin. She has spent the past eight years researching and working on issues related to Central American migration, Mexico’s migratory policy, and U.S.-Mexico border policies. Most recently, she has led a range of projects, including the first-ever border-wide investigation of CBP metering and asylum waitlists, a database and mapping effort for deceased migrants in South Texas, and an evaluation of Mexico’s private security industry in collaboration with the country’s National Security Commission.

Prior to her work at the Strauss Center, Stephanie conducted research as a Coca Cola World Fund Fellow, where she studied the development of Mexico’s automotive industry. Previously, she worked for three years as a Research Associate in the Latin America Studies program at the Council on Foreign Relations, where she focused on emerging security, immigration, economic, and energy issues in the region, with a particular focus on Mexico. In this capacity, she was the researcher for the CFR Task Force on North America, which, among other topics, focused on bilateral and trilateral cooperation.

Stephanie has also conducted field research on war torture in northern Uganda, Ecuador’s refugee policy, and Mexico’s aerospace industry. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Washington Post, Americas Quarterly, and The Dallas Morning News. She is also the lead author for the Beyond the Border column on the Lawfare Blog. Stephanie received an M.A. in Global Affairs from Yale University and a B.A. in International Affairs and Spanish Literature from Skidmore College.