Cynthia Telles

Cynthia Ann Telles is an American academic and psychologist who served as the United States ambassador to Costa Rica under Joe Biden. She is a clinical professor in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and serves on the executive committee of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. She is the founding director of the Hispanic Neuropsychiatric Center of Excellence.

Early life and education Costa Rica Ambassador Raymond Telles reads to his daughter, Cynthia, in December 1964. Her father was Raymond Telles, the first Mexican-American mayor of a major American city, El Paso, Texas. She was raised in El Paso and moved to Costa Rica in 1961, when her father served as the U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica under the John F. Kennedy administration. When she was 10, she nearly died after contracting viral encephalitis from a mosquito bite. By 12, she began volunteering at a hospital. She moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s to work on her doctoral dissertation.

Ambassador to Costa Rica On June 15, 2021, President Joe Biden nominated Telles to be the next US Ambassador to Costa Rica. Hearings on her nomination were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee On September 22, 2021. On October 19, 2021, her nomination was reported favorably out of committee. On December 18, 2021, her nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate via voice vote. She presented her credentials to the Vice Minister for Bilateral Affairs and International Cooperation, Adriana Bolaños Argueta, on March 10, 2022, and to the President of Costa Rica Carlos Alvarado Quesada on March 11, 2022.

Boards In Los Angeles, she has served on the Board of the Pacific Council on International Policy, and was the Chair of the Los Angeles/U.S. Section of the Mexico-Los Angeles Commission. and the ethics commission.

On the national level, Telles was appointed by President Barack Obama to the White House Commission on Presidential Scholars in 2010 and has served on the National Advisory Council of SAMHSA during the Clinton administration.

Personal life Telles is fluent in Spanish.

Telles was married to California State Senator Robert Hertzberg. They divorced in 2005. Telles has been married to Joseph Waz, a telecommunications executive, since 2015.

Select awards and recognition

First Annual Achievement Award for Mental Health Public Service American Psychological Association Minority Fellowship Program Leadership Award — National Hispanic Medical Association/National Hispanic Health Foundation Benjamin Joy Award — honoring Ambassador Telles and Mission San Jose team for advancing US commercial diplomacy. x.com