BY MAIRE O’NEILL
maire@losalamosreporter.com
Applications for the position of Los Alamos County Manager have been narrowed down to three finalists that were announced Wednesday by Los Alamos County Council. All three are women and they include current Los Alamos Deputy County Manager Anne Laurent. The other finalists are Gretchen Cassini, a Transportation Surtax Administrator from Broward County, Florida and Tracey Jerome, Senior Deputy City Manager for El Paso, Texas.
The three candidates now face interview with three panels – a panel of representatives of the community, a panel of the County’s senior managers and finally the County Council. A meet and greet for the general public has been slated for Dec. 7.
Anne Laurent first began working for Los Alamos County in 2008 as the Capital Projects & Facilities Director. From 2012 to 2015 she served as Community & Economic Development Director before taking a position as Community Development Manager for Park City, Utah for four years. Laurent returned to Los Alamos County in 2019 to serve for two years as Public Works Director before moving up to the Deputy County Manager’s position two years ago.
Laurent has a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and a Bachelor’s in Architecture from the Rhode Island School of Design, and a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Colorado-Denver. She is a Project Management Professional and a licensed architect in the state of New Mexico. Members of the community will remember that she headed up several large County projects such as the Municipal Building and the Justice Center on Central Avenue, the Pajarito Cliffs Site, the Golf Course, the Animal Shelter and the Nature Center, as well as the White Rock Library and Youth Activity Center.
Tracey Jerome has served as the Senior Deputy City Manager for the City of El Paso since May 2022 and as Deputy City Manager for three years prior to that. She also served as the Director of Museums and Cultural Affairs for the City for more than five years.
Jerome holds a Master of Arts – History of Art from Sotheby’s Institute of Art and a Master of Science in Historic Preservation from Eastern Michigan University.
Gretchen Cassini has worked for Broward County, Florida since 2007 when she spent two years as the Senior Legislative Coordinator for the office of Public & Governmental Relations. From 2009-2012 she was the Director of the Broward County Office of Intergovernmental Affairs & Professional Standards. Cassini went on to spend seven years as Assistant County Administrator before becoming the Transportation Surtax Administrator for the Mobility Advancement Program in Broward County.
Cassini earned her Juris Doctor from the Florida State University College of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Florida State University.
The Dec. 7 meet and greet promises to be informal with time for members of the public to chat one-on-one with the three candidates as well as hearing them speak. Details of the meet and greet will be published as soon as they are received.