Juan S. Gonzalez was commissioned on January 20, 2021 as Special Assistant to the President of the United States and National Security Council Senior for the Western Hemisphere. Prior to joining the administration, Mr. Gonzalez worked on the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition as Deputy for National Security Appointments, as co-chair of the Biden-Harris 2020 Campaign Western Hemisphere Foreign Policy Working Group, and represented the Biden campaign on the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force on Immigration. From 2017 to 2020, he was a Senior Fellow at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement and in 2017 was appointed by Senator Chuck Schumer to serve as a commissioner on the bipartisan congressional Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission.  

During the Obama-Biden administration, Mr. Gonzalez served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, where he led U.S. diplomatic engagement in Central America and the Caribbean. From 2013 to 2015, he served as Special Advisor to Vice President Joe Biden, during which he accompanied the Vice President on seven visits to Latin America and coordinated the launch of the U.S.-Mexico High-Level Economic Dialogue, the Caribbean Energy Security Initiative, and the Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle of Central America. Mr. Gonzalez also served as National Security Council Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs from 2011 to 2013. Prior to his service at the White House, Mr. Gonzalez served in a variety of positions at the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, including Chief of Staff to Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela. From 2001-2004, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. 

Mr. Gonzalez has an M.A. from Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. He is a native of Cartagena, Colombia and is married to Sarah Ashley Platts.