Lisa Curtis

Senior Research Fellow, South Asia, Asian Studies Center

Lisa Curtis focuses on analyzing America's economic, security, and political relationships with India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. Just prior to joining Heritage, she was a professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where she served as lead expert on South Asia for three years for the committee chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind. From 2001 to 2003, Curtis served as a senior adviser in the State Department's South Asia bureau, where she advised the assistant secretary on India-Pakistan relations and took part on numerous delegations to the region.

In the late 1990s, Curtis served in the Central Intelligence Agency as a political analyst on South Asia. She also served two-year stints as a political officer to the U.S. embassies in Islamabad and in New Delhi from 1994 to 1998. During her tour in Islamabad, she earned a meritorious honor award from the State Department for her contribution to a year-long, four-nation endeavor to free hostages held by militants in Kashmir. She also received honors from the CIA for her analytical work on India-Pakistan relations. She has taken part in various official delegations to the region, including a Commerce-led delegation to launch the U.S.-India High Technology Working Group in November, 2002 and as part of the U.S. delegation to the International Donor's Conference in Pakistan to raise funds for earthquake victims in November, 2005.

Curtis has a bachelor's degree in economics from Indiana University and lives in Reston, Va., with her husband and two children.