College Instructor
Master of Public Administration, University of New Mexico, 1993
Bachelor of Arts, Journalism and Mass Communication & Minor in Spanish and Criminal Justice, New Mexico State University, 1988
Post Graduate Work - in Progress, 24 hours toward a Ph.D. in Intercultural Communication, University of New Mexico
Before joining the team at NMSU, Sonya spent nearly thirty years in law enforcement, first as a Special Agent with the FBI and then as New Mexico’s United States Marshal. She most recently served as the Director of the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy with the Department of Public Safety in Santa Fe.
In the spring of 2018, Sonya was appointed by the White House as the United States Marshal for the District of New Mexico. Sonya was sworn in as New Mexico’s first woman to serve in this capacity and was responsible for leading one of the Marshals Service’s largest Districts and one which makes up part of the Southwest Border Region. Shortly after her appointment, Sonya was appointed to the Federal Judiciary’s Committee on Southwest Border matters and to the Director’s U.S. Marshals Advisory Committee, where she played an instrumental role in leading the Marshals Service’s efforts to raise the entry level pay scale for new deputies. Additionally, she was appointed by the Director to lead the Marshals’ efforts to increase the number lady deputies in the organization by implementing the National 3030 Initiative.
Prior to serving as New Mexico’s U.S. Marshal, Sonya spent 22 years as a Special Agent with the FBI. After completing her new agent training at Quantico, Virginia, Sonya was assigned to the Chicago Field Office, where she was a member of the Division’s Joint Task force on Gangs. She developed multiple complex investigations targeting some of the largest and most violent street gangs in the country and spent the majority of her Bureau career focusing on the operation of criminal street gangs in the United States. She has participated in the arrest of some of the most violent gang members and drug distributors during her tenure with the FBI. Sonya has been recognized by the FBI, and by state and local law enforcement and professional associations for her investigative work.
In December 2006, Sonya received a transfer to the FBI’s Albuquerque Division and started the FBI’s Safe Streets HIDTA Gang Task Force, leading that Task Force as a Supervisory Special Agent for eight years. She served 15 months as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Criminal Program and was the Division’s Undercover Program Coordinator. She was a member of the FBI’s Crisis Negotiation Team in both Chicago and Albuquerque. Sonya has been qualified as a subject matter expert by the Federal Court in the Northern District of Illinois and in the District of New Mexico in the areas of criminal enterprises and their communication and drug transportation methods. While in the FBI, Sonya played a role in leading the Bureau’s efforts to expand programs for female agents, specifically maternity leave and part-time programs, and represented the Bureau at all levels of leadership as a speaker, instructor, facilitator and spokesperson.
After earning a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and mass communication at NMSU, Sonya worked as a television news reporter and anchor for CBS and NBC news affiliates in west Texas. She returned to New Mexico to earn her master's in public administration from the University of New Mexico and during graduate school, she worked as the director of marketing at the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce and served as press aide and spokesperson for then-New Mexico Governor Bruce King during his last administration.
Sonya currently serves as Chair of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, New Mexico Chapter; is an appointed member of the Governor’s Organized Crime Commission and is a board member for the Rio Grand Valley CASA Program for the Seventh Judicial District.
She is a Torrance County native and a graduate of Moriarty High School.
