President Obama Appoints Julia Pierson as the First Woman Director of the U.S. Secret Service

Bernadine Racoma

March 27, 2013

The new director of the U.S. Secret Service is a woman. Her name is Julia Pierson. Last Tuesday she was named by President Barack Obama to head the organization. She is set to become the first woman to head the male-dominated U.S. Secret Service. Ms. Pierson will be taking over the post left by Mark Sullivan who said he would be retiring in April. Her appointment comes in the wake of the prostitution scandal that arose during the preparations for the President’s trip to attend a summit in Colombia in 2012. The incident caused great embarrassment for the American delegation.

Her appointment is very welcome news. It signals the intention of the President to change the organization’s culture and its highly-macho image. Heavy criticisms were hurled at the agency during the tenure of Mark Sullivan, with the prostitution scandal giving rise to many questions inside the agency, Capitol Hill, as well as the White House, on what goes on during travels to foreign countries. The Secret Service is the agency in-charge of the President’s security and protection. Financial crimes are also investigated by the Secret Service.

Veteran agent

Julia Pierson, who is now 53 years old, is no newbie. She is a secret service veteran who has served the organization for 30 years. Her most recent position in the agency is as its Chief of Staff, a position she’s held since 2008. She had been the agency’s assistant director for training and human resources and likewise had been a deputy assistant director of the Office of Protective Operations. In 2008 she received the Presidential Meritorious Executive Award, an award that is given for superior management performance.

Career start

Ms. Pierson joined the Miami branch of the secret service when she was about 24 years old. That was in 1983. She was a special agent. Previous to that she was an officer at the Orlando, Florida Police Department in 1980. She hails from Orlando and is a University of Central Florida alumnus.

Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa said the trust of Americans in the Secret Service had been lost due to the scandal and its ramifications. He added that Pierson should be ready to the amount of work waiting for her to create a new culture within the agency that shows respect and high regard for the work they do.