Ambassador Martha Bárcena Coqui is the former Mexican ambassador to the United States, a position she held from December 2018 to February 2021. Bárcena joined the Mexican Foreign Service in 1979, and since then she has held different positions at the foreign ministry, including head of Department of Migrant Workers and Border Cooperation in the Directorate for North American Affairs, deputy director for the Prospective and Planning Department, as well as special advisor to the vice minister for European, Asian, African and Multilateral Affairs and the director for International Development Cooperation. From 2017 to 2018 she was the permanent representative of Mexico to the UN agencies in Rome. Bárcena has served as consul in Barcelona and ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the Republics of Turkey, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia (2013-2017) and to the Kingdoms of Denmark and Norway as well as to the Republic of Iceland (2004-2013). She has been an associate professor on international organizations and international trade negotiations at the Iberoamerican University, the Center for Advanced Naval Studies, and the National Defense College of Mexico, and has published articles in books and magazines on UN peacekeeping operations, international development, intercultural communication, US-Mexico security relationships, energy, and international security. Bárcena holds a bachelor’s in communications and a master’s degree in political philosophy from the Iberoamerican University as well as a bachelor’s in philosophy and from the Pontifical Gregorian University. She holds a master’s degree in international studies from the Diplomatic School of Spain and completed several postgraduate courses at the Instituto Matías Romero.