August 1, 2022

Gregory D. Nelsen Named Special Agent in Charge of the Cleveland Field Office

Director Christopher Wray has named Gregory D. Nelsen as the special agent in charge of the Cleveland Field Office. Mr. Nelsen most recently served as a deputy assistant director of the Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) Division in West Virginia. 
 
Mr. Nelsen joined the FBI in 2001 as a special agent and was assigned to the Miami Field Office to work violent crime, drugs, gangs, and organized crime investigations. He was promoted in 2006 to supervisory special agent and transferred to the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate (WMDD) at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C. During his time in the WMDD, he was assigned to the CIA’s Counter Terrorist Center/WMD Iraq Unit. 
 
In 2008, Mr. Nelsen transferred to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, where he taught new agent trainees. In 2010, he was promoted to supervisor of human intelligence programs in the Buffalo Field Office in New York. He later supervised Buffalo’s Joint Terrorism Task Force. 
 
Mr. Nelsen transferred to the Pittsburgh Field Office in 2016, serving as the assistant special agent in charge (ASAC) of the Criminal Branch and the Pennsylvania resident agencies—smaller FBI offices under the authority of the Pittsburgh office. In 2017, he transitioned to ASAC over Pittsburgh’s cyber and intelligence programs. 
 
Mr. Nelsen was promoted in 2019 to section chief of the CJIS Division’s National Threat Operations Section. CJIS provides a range of state of-the-art tools and services to law enforcement, national security and intelligence community partners, and the general public. In 2020, he was promoted to deputy assistant director of the CJIS Division’s Operational Programs Branch. 
 
Prior to joining the FBI, Mr. Nelsen was a police officer with the Virginia Beach Police Department in Virginia. He earned a bachelor’s degree from St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York.