Brenda is the former Executive Assistant Commissioner Office of Trade, U.S. Customs and Border Protection. She recently completed a 34-year career with the U.S. government, including five years on Capitol Hill and experience at the Department of Treasury and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. She was a member of the Senior Executive Service for fourteen years and served as the Executive Assistant Commissioner of Trade at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from 2014 until 2021. In this role, she led CBP’s Trade mission, overseeing trade enforcement, security, and facilitation matters. Her responsibility included enforcing more than 500 U.S. trade laws and 14 trade agreements with 20 countries.

Brenda held a variety of roles at CBP, overseeing trade and border enforcement issues. As Executive Director for the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Business Office, she was responsible for digitizing trade processes on behalf of 50 government agencies for 50,000 private sector and government users. Brenda served as Executive Director for Trade Policy and Programs, the Director of Policy and Programs in the Office of International Affairs and Trade Relations. She led the CBP Commissioner’s Strategic Planning and Performance Division.

Before joining Customs, she worked at the Department of the Treasury and on Capitol Hill. Brenda was a 2017 finalist in the Samuel J. Heyman Service to America (“Sammie”) Award for Management Excellence. She received the Distinguished Executive Presidential Rank Award, given to the top 1% of senior U.S. government executives, to enhance trade law enforcement to protect business and consumers and align customs procedures with modern business practices to improve economic competitiveness.

In her new role, Brenda will continue productive government-trade community collaboration to support strong and resilient supply chains.