Karla Quintana, former National Commissioner for the Search of Missing Persons in Mexico from February 2019 to August 2023, led the development of institutional frameworks and public policy on the search and identification of missing persons. This included the consolidation of the legal framework and methodologies with mass and differentiated approaches to address disappearances in various contexts, such as enforced disappearances, disappearances by private individuals, human trafficking, forced recruitment, kidnapping, and abduction, among others.

Quintana holds a PhD in Law from the Institute of Legal Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She also has a Master of Laws (LLM) from Harvard University, a Master's in Studies on Sexual Difference from the University of Barcelona, and a Bachelor's degree in Law as well as a Bachelor's degree in Hispanic Language and Literature, both from UNAM.

Before her role at the National Search Commission, Karla Quintana was the General Director of Federal Legal Advisory at the Executive Commission for Victim Assistance, responsible for the public defense of victims. She also served as a secretary for Studies and Records at the Supreme Court of Justice of Mexico. Throughout her career, she worked at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as part of the litigation team before the Inter-American Court and in the Vice Presidency of Institutional Integrity at the World Bank. Additionally, she was a lawyer at the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Karla Quintana has been a professor at FLACSO Mexico, at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), and is currently teaching at the Faculty of Law at UNAM. She is the author of a book and several articles on human rights and constitutional law. Currently, she serves as a visiting researcher at El Colegio de México.