Brett F. Woods has held a number of senior administrative and regulatory positions in New Mexico state government, including Inspector General, Human Services Department; New Mexico State Director of Child Support Enforcement; Director of Administrative Services, Taxation and Revenue Department; and Commissioner for Law Enforcement and Executive Director for the state Gaming Control Board, which regulates gambling in New Mexico. Most recently, he served as a principal analyst for the New Mexico Legislative Finance Committee. 

A Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Army Special Forces and former special agent with the U.S. Secret Service, Woods is a Senior Executive Fellow of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He has also completed the Advanced Management College at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. Holding both Certified Government Financial Manager and Certified Fraud Examiner designations, he has received the national Association of Government Accountants’ Achievement of the Year Award for program integrity innovations and is a past president of the association’s New Mexico chapter.

Woods received a B.S. in law enforcement and political science from Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX; an M.A. in public administration from Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA; and a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Essex, England. He teaches historical research methods at the graduate level and is the author of numerous books, essays and commentaries related to political, military and literary history. His most recent book, Thomas Jefferson: Thoughts on War and Revolution, was published in 2009.