Isabel Rowan Scarpino is a research fellow with the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT). Currently based in Bogotá, she assists IFIT’s Venezuela project in advancing a negotiated solution to the country’s crisis. This work builds on research conducted with David Smilde under the auspices of the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research, including supporting the Venezuela Conflict and Peacebuilding Research Network’s 2022 conference in partnership with Universidad Católica Andrés Bello. In this capacity, Isabel drew on contemporaneous work with Transitional Justice Evaluation Tools, a database cataloging human rights accountability mechanisms in 180 countries 1970-2022, to evaluate proposals for justice and accountability in a future democratic transition in Venezuela. Previously, Isabel worked at the New York City Bar Association (NYCBA), supporting civil rights litigation in the Southern District of New York. She is a member of the NYCBA’s International Law Committee and has contributed to its programming on contemporary human rights, sovereignty, and civilian protection issues in Latin America. She previously worked at the Center for a New American Security, a foreign policy think tank.

Selected publications:

● Isabel Rowan Scarpino. “Colombia’s Transitional Justice Was Built to Survive de la Espriella.” Lawfare, August 21, 2026.

● David Smilde and Isabel Rowan Scarpino. “U.S. Foreign Policy, the Opposition, and the Maduro Government: Venezuela’s Authoritarian Slide in Ten Episodes.” In Authoritarian Consolidation in Times of Crisis: Venezuela under Nicolas Maduro, edited by John-Polga Hecimovich and Raul Sanchez Urribarri. Routledge, 2025.

● Isabel Rowan Scarpino. “The Real Cost of Reimposing Sanctions on Venezuela.” Foreign Policy, May 2, 2024.