Carl Meacham is the director of the CSIS Americas Program. He joined CSIS from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC), where he served on the professional staff for Senator Richard Lugar for over a decade. He served as the senior adviser for Latin America and the Caribbean on the SFRC. Mr. Meacham was responsible for managing the committee’s relationship with the State Department regarding the Western Hemisphere and overseeing its budget. He has also served at the Department of Commerce as special assistant to the deputy secretary, at the Cuban Affairs Bureau of the Department of State, and at the U.S. embassy in Madrid. Mr. Meacham received his BA from the University at Albany and holds MA degrees from American University and Columbia University.