Long-time local attorney Olga Pedroza was elected as City Councilor for District 3 in November, 2009.
Olga is a former elementary school teacher who received a law degree from the University of New Mexico in 1985. She worked in private practice, as an attorney for the State of New Mexico, and for 17 years for Southern New Mexico Legal Aid, 16 of them as the managing attorney.
Among her top priorities are education and economic development. She is eager to create partnerships with the public schools, and to develop growth policies supportive of community life. She is especially interested in bringing the benefits of the new energy economy to the young people of our community, through internships, vocational training and local jobs.
Besides her law degree from UNM, Pedroza received her undergraduate degree from Mundelein College in Chicago and a master’s degree in Education from Antioch College. She is past chair of the Women’s Intercultural Center and a former board member of CASA, an organization that advocates for abused and neglected children in our area. She has three children, a daughter studying nursing at NMSU, a son who is a director at the Emergency Medical Response Agency in Las Cruces, and a daughter who is an attorney in private practice in Taos. Her grandchildren attend Las Cruces Public Schools, and her son-in-law returned in January from service in Iraq.