WASHINGTON (AA) - March 28, 2013 - US President Barack Obama appointed veteran agent Julia Pierson as Secret Service director.
Pierson is the first woman to lead the Secret Service following the tarnish of its reputation by scandals in recent years.
"Julia is eminently qualified to lead the agency that not only safeguards Americans at major events and secures our financial system, but also protects our leaders and our first families, including my own," Obama said in a statement.
Starting at the US Secret Service in 1983, Pierson served four years with the Presidential Protective Division, and she became deputy assistant director of the Office of Protective Operations in 2005.
