Faculty Profile: LaToya Beck

LaToya Beck is currently the Director of the New Orleans Asylum Office. She began her USCIS career in 2014 as an Asylum Officer at the Los Angles Asylum Office where she adjudicated affirmative asylum and asylum prescreening (APSO) cases, including family processing cases on the southwest border. She also completed circuit rides for the Refugee Affairs Division interviewing and adjudicating refugee claims in Tanzania, Burundi and Uganda. She transitioned to Supervisory Asylum Officer at the New Orleans Asylum Sub Office (ZOL) in March 2017. As a Supervisory Asylum Officer, LaToya oversaw many portfolios for ZOL including, but not limited to, Operations Allies Welcome, NACARA/ABC, Background and Identity Security Checks, Terrorist Related and Inadmissibility Grounds (TRIG), Nunc Pro Tunc (NPT) and Terminations. In 2019, Beck was detailed to RAIO Training Branch. In 2020, she was detailed to the Office of Chief Financial Officer where she worked on special projects with Planning and Formations Branch, Program Execution Branch and Coordination and Reporting Branch. In August of 2022 she became ZOL’s first Deputy Director.

In June 2020, Beck completed the Executive Potential Program (EPP). Her final project for EPP studied efficiency gains in the asylum prescreening Process. She led her team in identifying opportunities for process improvements and made recommendations for operational changes to reduce APSO processing times. 
 
Before joining USCIS, Beck worked in academia at Carleton College and Hamline University where she taught Anthropology and Interdisciplinary Studies courses. She also served as a Coordinator of Residential Programs at Hamline University.