I graduated from college with a Bachelor’s degree in Business and took a job as a management trainee at a fancy department store. It wasn’t long before I was offered a position as a department manager and I eagerly accepted the promotion even though I sensed early on...
As an FBI counterintelligence agent, my job was to identify and recruit Russian spies to work for the United States Government. Little did they know that the Russian government gave my colleagues and me the most powerful gift, a toxic system filled with corruption,...
Most of us have no idea of what to do with our lives. Even after school. We expect our careers to lead us down the road to happiness. Even after we get paychecks. We’ve seen the slick advertisements that promise that money can buy happiness—if we have enough of it....
I felt a sinking feeling in my gut as I drove into the parking garage, and it was happening more and more. A job that had once invigorated me and filled me with eagerness now produced a heaviness inside that I could no longer ignore. As a new FBI agent out of the...
A successful Silicon Valley businessman was contacted by a foreign intelligence officer and I interviewed him about the relationship. He was cooperative and we started to meet on a regular basis. He mentioned that he was involved in an angel investor group and thought...
As the spokesperson for the FBI in Northern California, I found myself in several situations where the FBI was criticized, and I was expected to justify its actions. As with most sophisticated investigations, there are many steps when building a case and evidence is...
I grew up around cowboys and horses in Wyoming; words like “country hick” and “hee-haw” were thrown out to remind me that I wasn’t as sophisticated or bright as my urban counterparts. I didn’t need their insults to point out that I was different because of my...
When I arrived as a new agent on my squad, I was the only female and the youngest. Everyone was polite, but my caseload was full of dead-end leads that the older and more experienced agents didn’t want to waste their time on. My desk was at the end farthest from the...
Over the past few years, I’ve read many ridiculous articles about how resilience means “bouncing back” from our obstacles—as though life is nothing more than jumping on a trampoline. To unlock our resilience, we must get serious and look for deeper healing than a few...
Some of my biggest laughs come from watching Hollywood movies and TV shows depicting FBI agents as indestructible bullies walking that fine line between good and evil. They are either taking the law into their own hands in their pursuit of justice or abusing their...
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