New York ? The Associated Press named a Lawrence native on Tuesday to lead its new regional editing operations in the West region of the U.S.

Traci Carl, the AP’s bureau chief for Mexico and Central America, is the new West Editor based in Phoenix.

Carl joined the AP in 1995 as a legislative relief reporter in Topeka, Kan. She went on to work at the Kansas City and Wichita bureaus before transferring to the International Desk in New York in 1998.

She moved to Mexico City with the AP in June 2000, a few weeks before President Vicente Fox’s historic election ended 71 years of rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party. She was promoted to news editor for Mexico and Central America in 2003, and then bureau chief in 2005.

During her nine years in Mexico City, Carl has reported from across Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as from Iraq.

Carl, 36, graduated from Kansas University in 1995 with a double major in journalism and Spanish. She is married with a 3-year-old daughter.