Director Christopher Wray has named Michelle A. Sutphin as the special agent in charge of the Jackson Field Office in Mississippi. Ms. Sutphin most recently served as the chief of staff for the Science and Technology Branch at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Sutphin began her career with the FBI in 1998 as a special agent assigned to the Chicago Field Office, where she investigated violent crimes, gangs, and art crimes. She was also a leader of the Chicago Evidence Response Team that responded to Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after 9/11. In 2008, she was promoted to supervisory special agent and became the program manager of the Evidence Response Team Unit at the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia. In addition to supporting the FBI’s 1,200 evidence specialists in the field, she trained new agents in evidence collection and preservation.

In 2011, Ms. Sutphin transferred to the Springfield Field Office in Illinois, where she was responsible for criminal matters in 18 Central Illinois counties. In 2013, she was transferred to the St. Louis Field Office and worked violent gangs and drug matters. She was selected as a team leader in the Inspection Division in 2014 at Headquarters, where she led program reviews during inspections of field offices and reviews of shooting incidents.

Ms. Sutphin was promoted to assistant special agent in charge at the Little Rock Field Office in Arkansas in 2016. She oversaw the intelligence program and all national security programs—including counterterrorism, counterintelligence, weapons of mass destruction, and cyber matters—in the state.

In 2018, Ms. Sutphin was promoted to section chief and chief of staff for the Science and Technology Branch at Headquarters. The branch oversees the Bureau’s efforts to employ scientific techniques and operational technologies to fight terrorism and criminal threats.

Ms. Sutphin earned a bachelor’s degree from Illinois State University.