Cynthia A. Telles

Cynthia Telles
Telles in 2022
United States Ambassador to Costa Rica
In office
March 11, 2022  January 19, 2025
PresidentJoe Biden
Preceded bySharon Day
Succeeded byMelinda Hildebrand (nominee)
Personal details
Born
Cynthia Ann Telles
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse(s)
David J. Jimenez
(m. 1986, divorced)

(m. 1995; div. 2005)

Joseph Waz
(m. 2015)
RelationsRaymond Telles (father)
Monica C. Lozano (cousin)
Children1
EducationSmith College (BA)
Boston University (PhD)

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