Alys Spensley joined the U.S. Department of State as a Foreign Service Officer in 2004. She will be the Spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan starting in August 2021. Alys served as the Deputy Spokesperson at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from 2017-2020. In Beijing Alys led teams focused on media monitoring and translation, social media, audience analysis, and visual diplomacy. She engaged Chinese and foreign media and identified and countered Chinese disinformation. Before that she served as the Cultural Affairs Officer in the Public Diplomacy Section of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), and as the Director of AIT's American Center, responsible for strengthening educational and cultural ties between the United States and Taiwan. She has also served in Washington in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs as a Staff Assistant and as the Policy and Coordination Officer in the Office of Public Diplomacy. Her first posting was at the U.S. Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal, and she also served as the Cultural Affairs Officer and the 2010 Expo Liaison Officer in Shanghai. She has received numerous State Department awards including several Superior Honor Awards.

Prior to becoming a Foreign Service Officer, Alys worked as a financial analyst in New York City and, before that, conducted field research as a Fulbright grantee in Yunnan Province. Alys was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies from Kenyon College and speaks Nepali and Mandarin Chinese and is currently studying Azerbaijani. Her husband is also a Foreign Service Officer and they have three children. She loves to read, travel, and try new foods.