KNOXVILLE, TE—Renae McDermott, special agent in charge of the FBI in East Tennessee has been promoted to deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Training Division located at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Ms. McDermott has served as the head of Knoxville’s Field Office since November 2016. She was the first female ever to lead the field office. Her replacement will be named at a later date.

In her new assignment she will oversee an array of activity at the FBI Academy at Quantico, Virginia. Located about 36 miles outside Washington, D.C., the Academy is a full-service national training facility—with conference rooms and classrooms, dorms, firing ranges, a gym and pool, a library, a dining hall, and even a mock town.

“The people of East Tennessee are among the most welcoming I’ve ever experienced,” said Renae McDermott, special agent in charge of the FBI in East Tennessee. “I am proud to have been able to serve with some of the finest people in local, state, and federal law enforcement here in the Knoxville Field Office. I know I will miss it here, but I am excited for the next chapter of my career, serving at Quantico”.

Ms. McDermott entered on duty with the FBI in 1989 as an FBI police officer and then served as a physical science technician in the Firearms and Tool Marks Unit in the FBI Laboratory. Following graduation from the FBI Academy in 1994, she was assigned to the Miami Field Office where she worked violent crime, public corruption, and counterterrorism and was an airport liaison agent. She has served tours in the Dallas and Albuquerque Field Offices as well as several tours at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

While new agents are typically synonymous with the Quantico and the FBI Academy, the Training Division instructs many diverse groups of people, including: special agents, intelligence analysts, professional FBI staff, law enforcement officers, foreign partners, and the private sector.

The Academy offers many training programs, including: Firearms, which trains new agents to discharge all Bureau-issued weapons in a safe and effective manner; Hogan’s Alley, a training complex simulating a small town where FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) new agent trainees learn investigative techniques, firearms skills, and defensive tactics. Hogan’s Alley also houses functioning classrooms, administrative and maintenance areas, and audiovisual facilities; Tactical and Emergency Vehicle Operations Center (TEVOC), which teaches safe, efficient driving techniques to FBI and DEA personnel and other government and military personnel; Survival Skills, a program that gives new agents and law enforcement officers the skills and mindset required to identify and handle critical situations in high-risk environments; Law Enforcement Executive Development, which includes the Law Enforcement Executive Development Seminars (LEEDS) designed for chief executive officers of the nation’s mid-sized law enforcement agencies.

The Academy also houses the FBI Library that maintains complete and up-to-date law enforcement information from around the world and offers a variety of audiovisual materials, legal publications, government documents, periodicals, and online resources.

Ms. McDermott will report to her new assignment next month.