Director Christopher Wray has named Elena Iatarola as the special agent in charge of the Cincinnati Field Office. Ms. Iatarola most recently served as a section chief in the Security Division.

Ms. Iatarola joined the FBI as a special agent in 1997 and reported to the El Paso Field Office in Texas, where she investigated volent and transnational organized crimes. In 2008, she was promoted to serve as supervisory special agent in the Merrillville Resident Agency of the Indianapolis Field Office and led two Safe Street Task Forces in Northern Indiana.

Ms. Iatarola transferred to the Las Vegas Field Office, and from 2012 she served as a field supervisor overseeing criminal and international terrorism investigations. In 2017, she reported to the Inspection Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., as a team leader. In 2018, she returned to Las Vegas as the program coordinator for the Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking programs.

Ms. Iatarola was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the Intelligence and Administrative branches of the Denver Field Office in 2019. In her role there, she was responsible for oversight of the resident agencies in Wyoming, the intelligence and security programs,  SWAT and Evidence Response Team, and all administrative programs. Ms. Iatarola was also the on-scene commander after a mass shooting at a Boulder grocery store in 2021 which left 10 people dead, including an on-duty police officer.

In 2022, Ms. Iatarola was promoted to section chief of the Suitability and Security Clearance Section in the Security Division, overseeing all aspects of background investigations and clearances. The Security Division is one of several FBI Headquarters divisions located on the FBI’s campus on Redstone Arsenal near Huntsville, Alabama.

Prior to joining the FBI, Ms. Iatarola served as a police officer with the Henderson Police Department in Nevada. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in criminal justice from Indiana University, a master’s degree in public safety administration from the Calumet College of St. Joseph University in Indiana, and a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.