The City of Las Cruces has hired Carol Brey to serve as the new Quality of Life Director.
Brey previously served for 12 years as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. State Department, most recently on a detail in Sen. Ben Cardin’s Office, a Maryland Democrat. Prior to that, Brey served from 2018 to 2021 as the Director of the Office of American Spaces in Washington, D.C., overseeing more than 600 of these public diplomacy platforms in more than 145 countries.
Overseas, Ms. Brey provided direct support for American Spaces throughout South America, nine countries in all, based at the U.S. Embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, from 2015 to 2018 and in Brasilia, Brazil from 2011 to 2013. She also served as a Division Chief in the Office of American Spaces, where she developed and implemented a new worldwide training program.
Before joining the Foreign Service, Ms. Brey worked as a public library administrator for many years, most recently as Director of the El Paso Public Library, and previously for Thomas Branigan Memorial Library in Las Cruces, as well as libraries in Illinois, Oklahoma, and Missouri. She is a past president (2004 to 2005) of the American Library Association, the oldest and largest library association in the world, where she served as a spokesperson and advocate for libraries on the local, state, and national level.
Ms. Brey pursued doctorate studies at the University of Texas at Austin and earned a master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois and a bachelor’s degree in Music from Illinois State University. She is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese. Ms. Brey recently moved back to the area with her husband Adilson Bezerra de Sousa and their two dogs.
“I am excited and happy to be returning to the City of Las Cruces to work as the Quality-of-Life Director,” Brey stated. “Las Cruces is a progressive and diverse city, and I look forward to working once again with City staff and partners to further enhance our community.
Please join us in congratulating Ms. Brey on her new position as Quality-of-Life Director.