#UnexpectedAgent: Special Agent Marlo Graham

Video Transcript

Special Agent Marlo Graham: It's one thing to know that the work that I'm doing is protecting the community. But it's an even bigger deal to know that the work that I'm doing is also protecting my children. It's everything.
 
My name is Marlo Graham. I am a supervisory special agent at FBI headquarters.
 
The FBI has had women special agents for a little over 40 years. There are father/daughter agents, but there was never a mother and a daughter. My mom and I are the first mother/daughter FBI agents in the bureau history. The network of female special agents that she had developed and built throughout her career-- they were resources to me and other new agents. Diversity amongst more than gender is also important.
 
When I first got to the FBI, I was very impressed at the backgrounds of my peers who were in the room with me. They came from all different walks of life and that, ultimately, is what I see that makes the FBI a special place.
 
For me personally family life is everything: it's what makes me tick, it's my "why." The FBI is a family as well. There's a support network that's available that you can always lean on. You maintain your schedule and that's the flexibility of the job that allows to have kids and be able to support them.
 
A person's life experience shapes what kind of agent they will be. It shapes what kind of person they are, right? And so, whether it's sports in high school, whether it's, you know, working in the accounting department at Edward Jones, whether it's reviewing tax returns at the IRS, or becoming a parent--all of these things have helped shape the agent that I am. And that collection of things may be different for someone else, but it's people with a different background, with a different history, with a different set of experiences that make the FBI a special place.