Anna Escobedo Cabral (born October 12, 1959)[1] is an American politician who served as the Unit Chief for Strategic Communications in the External Relations Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) from 2009 to 2018.

She also serves as an independent director for Navient, a member of the Comcast NBCU diversity council, and as an advisor to the Libra Group, and Valaurum.

Her current nonprofit commitments include serving as chair of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation, chair of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, Treasurer of Lideramos, a national Latino organization focused on providing leadership training to grassroots community advocates, and member of the board of governors of Orange County Community Foundation.

[2][3][4] The oldest of five children, Cabral managed to attend Burbank Elementary School in the 1960s despite her family's hectic schedule: her father picked the fields of the Santa Clara Valley and both parents obtained various types of employment throughout the San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

[6] At very early ages, Cabral and her siblings had to collect scrap metal and salvage old motor parts with their father that they would then sell to help the family survive.

[9] By age 16, Cabral was already on track to finishing high school early; after graduation, she intended to find a full-time job to help her parents financially.

However, halfway through the program, Cabral decided to withdraw from the law school component in order to take care of family needs.

In 2002, she was appointed by President George W. Bush to his Council on the 21st Century Workplace, providing guidance to the White House and the Department of Labor on work-related issues.

That same year, she was named to a two-year term on the Diversity Council of the Premier Automotive Group, an outreach effort of the Ford Motor Company.

She also served on the boards of the Sewall–Belmont House and Museum, a historic center commemorating women's suffrage, and Martha's Table, a nonprofit that assists the less fortunate to better themselves through volunteer activities.

[12] Cabral was sworn in on January 19, 2005, becoming the highest-ranking Latina in the Bush administration and ending a seventeen-month vacancy in the office brought about by the resignation of Rosario Marin.

[4][14] John W. Snow, the Secretary of the Treasury, presided over the ceremony together with Senator Orrin G. Hatch, which was also attended by Alberto Gonzales, the chief White House Counsel who had just been nominated as the first Hispanic Attorney General.

In the wake of the disaster, Cabral dedicated much of her time in developing methods to help people affected in rebuilding and managing their financial well-being.

[7] Despite a heavy work schedule and numerous speaking engagements, Cabral returned to school in order to obtain her Juris Doctor.

[18] In June of that year, Cabral co-hosted the Pathways to Hispanic Family Learning conference with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.