Born in the Dominican Republic, Julissa Reynoso moved to the United States with her family at the age of seven. In an interview with Elle, she looked back at her early years in America: “In the Bronx we were all strangers in a new world, recent immigrants or children of.… So I was always very used to diversity in my day to day, and what I knew from them, from cooking to political science or their customs, was different. All of that interested me a lot.” She graduated from Aquinas High School in the Bronx, going on to study at Harvard University, the University of Cambridge, and Columbia Law School.
Today, Reynoso is an attorney and diplomat currently serving as U.S. ambassador to Spain and Andorra. Previously, she served as chief of staff to First Lady Jill Biden and as cochair of the White House’s Gender Policy Council. During the Obama administration, she served successively as deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs at the Department of State and as U.S. ambassador to Uruguay. Reflecting on her high-level appointments in two presidential administrations, Reynoso said, “I’ve had a good run with so many types of incredible women who have opened these doors for me.”
In addition to her career in diplomacy and public service, Reynoso has been a litigation and international arbitration partner in multiple white shoe law firms. She has also been on the faculty of the School of Law and the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University. A key to her success has been building strong relationships. Of her early career, Reynoso explains: “I was always volunteering with community organizations uptown in Manhattan and in the Bronx. I always had relationships with folks who were trying to make the city, New York City, better.… I forged these friendships.… I kept showing up to things, you’ve got to show up to things and make sure you’re giving whatever you can.”
Reynoso is widely published in English and Spanish on an array of legal issues. Among her many honors, she received the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans and was named to Crain’s list of “Leading Women Lawyers in NYC.”
