Expert Bio

Dr. Benjamin N. Gedan is director of the Wilson Center’s Latin America Program. He also serves as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University. He is a former South America director on the National Security Council staff at the White House. Previously, he was responsible for Honduras and Argentina at the US Department of State and covered Central America and the Caribbean as an international economist at the US Department of the Treasury. 

As a journalist, Gedan reported for The Boston Globe, The Miami Herald, and other publications. He is a former Fulbright scholar in Uruguay and earned a PhD in foreign affairs from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). He graduated from Tufts University with a Bachelor’s in international relations and received a Master’s in international economics and Latin American studies from SAIS. He is a former term member and recipient of the International Affairs Fellowship at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

As a Latin America scholar, Gedan has published opinion pieces in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Miami Herald, and Foreign Policy, and his analysis has been cited by NPR, CNN, MSNBC, PBS NewsHour, The Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, and the BBC.