Anya Landau French

Research Director, U.S.–Cuba Policy Initiative, New America Foundation

Anya Landau French is the Director of the New America Foundation’s U.S. – Cuba Policy Initiative. Previously, Landau French was a Senior Fellow with the Lexington Institute, where she recently published Options for Engagement: A Resource Guide for Reforming U.S. Policy toward Cuba.

She is a former International Trade Advisor to Chairman Max Baucus of the Senate Finance Committee. In that capacity she focused on trade and worker adjustment policy, U.S.-Cuba relations, and helped draft and pass the 2006 SAFE Port Act. Previously she advised Senator Baucus on defense, homeland security, immigration, and foreign policy. During her time in the Senate, she worked extensively on issues dealing with U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba, Treasury Department sanctions enforcement and the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba.

As a Transatlantic Fellow with the German Marshall Fund, Landau French focused on trade and foreign aid policy.

Prior to her tenure on Capitol Hill, Landau French focused on U.S.-Cuba affairs at the Center for International Policy, where her research and publications covered U.S.-Cuba trade, travel, intellectual property, terrorism, and Cuban American attitudes. At the Center, she implemented media, congressional, and public education strategies and events, and organized trips to Cuba for Congressional, business, and civic leaders’ delegations.

Landau French holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Arts in International Education from the George Washington University. She speaks Spanish and German.