Audio Transcript

I started my path to the FBI as a flight attendant for Hawaiian airlines, which is what I was doing professionally on 9/11. I had just turned 40 the December after 9/11, that December. So, I took early retirement.

I started back to school—this was prior to getting a job with my federal position. And I just sort of kept going. I completed my original degree and then added like a full minor to that in criminal justice and social sciences. And then I decided I’d continue on and get my masters in criminal justice. And then I decided that when I was offered an opportunity at Johns Hopkins for national security studies, I went and got my ABD and my certification—national security studies with Johns Hopkins. And I just sort of kept going. I talk about it as sort of being my midlife crisis. I retire from this high-paying job. I turned 40, and I go back to school, and put myself through this and, you know, it was one step closer to what I was looking at putting myself in a position to really be able to do something tangible, to help prevent something like 9/11 happening.

There’s so many stories. There’s so many individuals who left private sector to come into public service after 9/11. And every single one of them has a reason for doing that, whatever it might be. And I admire anyone who makes the decision to put themselves in public service in the service of all Americans. I mean, the good of the many outweighs the good of the one. That’s kind of always been my motto since I started with the federal government. And I’m just, I’m always so genuinely grateful and humbled to be able to be in this position.

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