REPORT FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
SUBJECT: Ambassadorial Nomination: Certificate of Demonstrated Competence — Foreign Service Act, Section 304(a)(4)
POST: Republic of Costa Rica
CANDIDATE: Cynthia Ann Telles
Cynthia Ann Telles is a Clinical Professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, serves on the Executive Committee of the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, and has been Director of the UCLA Spanish-Speaking Psychosocial Clinic for over thirty years. She is also the founding Director of the UCLA Hispanic Neuropsychiatric Center of Excellence. Dr. Telles served on the Board of the Pacific Council on International Policy, was the Chair of the Los Angeles/U.S. Section of the Mexico-Los Angeles Commission, and has served on numerous commissions for the City of Los Angeles including the Board of Airport Commissioners.
She is a member of the Board of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals Corporation and has served on the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars as well as the National Advisory Council of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services. She also served on the Board of General Motors Co. and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation and was a founding Board member of Americas United Bank, the first Hispanic commercial bank chartered in California in over 30 years Her philanthropic work includes service as the Chair of the California Community Foundation and as Vice-Chair, and Chair of the Board of The California Endowment, the largest health foundation in the state.
Dr. Telles spent much of her childhood in Costa Rica and is fluent in Spanish. Her in-depth knowledge of the nation, coupled with her broad and extensive engagement in governance, the private sector and philanthropy, make her a well-qualified candidate to serve as Ambassador to the Republic of Costa Rica.