Barbara Feinstein

USAID Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean
Deputy Assistant Administrator

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Barbara Feinstein serves as Deputy Assistant Administrator within USAID’s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).  A career member of the Senior Executive Service, Feinstein oversees the Agency’s development priorities in Central America, Mexico, and Cuba. Before joining the LAC Bureau, she was the Senior Deputy Assistant Administrator for Legislative Affairs in USAID’s Bureau for Legislative and Public Affairs, where she helped to craft and execute the Agency’s legislative agenda, including advocacy for appropriations and the successful enactment of the Global Food Security Act.  Before that, Feinstein worked for three years in the Office of the USAID Administrator, serving as deputy chief of staff to Administrator Rajiv Shah, chief of staff and senior policy advisor to Acting Administrator Alonzo Fulgham, and special assistant to Administrator Henrietta Fore. 

Feinstein has served on the professional staff of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations and the House International Relations Committee.  

Feinstein has served in various capacities at the Departments of State and Defense. She has a Master’s degree in International and Public Affairs from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies, Spanish and Portuguese from the University of California-Berkeley.

Feinstein speaks Spanish and Portuguese, and elementary Russian.