Director Christopher Wray has named Krysti E. Hawkins as the special agent in charge of the Intelligence Division at the Los Angeles Field Office. Ms. Hawkins most recently served as the chief of staff to the deputy director at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Hawkins joined the FBI as a special agent in 2003 and investigated complex white-collar and financial crimes at the Cleveland Field Office. She formed and led the FBI's first multiagency Mortgage Fraud Task Force at the height of the subprime mortgage crisis.
Ms. Hawkins led and investigated major covert operations involving drug trafficking, public corruption, and domestic terrorism. Ms. Hawkins was also an instructor at the FBI's first undercover certification program for public corruption and counterterrorism officers from Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya.
In 2010, Ms. Hawkins transferred to the New Orleans Field Office to investigate public corruption matters. After she was certified as an FBI crisis negotiator in 2012, she helped secure the release of a U.S. citizen taken hostage by the Taliban and held captive in Iraq.
Ms. Hawkins was promoted to supervisory special agent in 2015, and oversaw a public corruption squad and the crisis negotiation and tactical operations command in New Orleans. She was promoted to unit chief of the Human Resource Division's Senior Executive Services Unit at FBI Headquarters in 2017 and also served as unit chief of the division's Leadership Selection Unit. Ms. Hawkins returned to New Orleans in 2019 to supervise the Violent Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Squad.
In 2019, Ms. Hawkins was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of the Criminal Division of the Los Angeles Field Office, responsible for criminal and administrative programs. She was promoted to section chief of the National Covert Operations Section of the Criminal Investigative Division at FBI Headquarters in 2021, and was named chief of staff to the deputy director in 2022.
Ms. Hawkins was born and raised in Los Angeles. She earned a bachelor's degree in criminal justice and a master's in accounting from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Before joining the FBI, she served as an assistant vice president in commercial banking.
