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Jennifer McCoy has been director of the Carter Center's Americas Program since August 1998, and a political science professor at Georgia State University since 1984. Previously she also served as senior research associate at The Carter Center (1988-98).

She currently directs the Carter Center's Friends of the Inter-American Democratic Charter group and previously directed the Carter Center's project on Mediation and Monitoring in Venezuela from 2002-2004.   She has directed election monitoring projects for The Carter Center in Nicaragua, Panama, Mexico, Venezuela, Jamaica, and Peru, and has participated in election delegations to Indonesia, Haiti, Suriname, and Guyana.

Dr. McCoy's academic career has included extensive fieldwork in Venezuela, Nicaragua, and in Uruguay, where she conducted research as a Fulbright fellow in 1991 and 1992.  A specialist on democratization, international collective protection and promotion of democracy, and Latin American politics, Dr. McCoy is editor and contributor to The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela, (with David Myers, 2004); Do Politicians Learn from Political Crises? (2000); and Venezuelan Democracy Under Stress (1995).  She is currently working on a book about international mediation and monitoring of the Venezuelan political conflict between 2002-2004.  Dr. McCoy received her bachelor's degree from Oklahoma State University and her doctorate from the University of Minnesota.