Mary E. Galligan Named New York Division’s First Female Special Agent in Charge

Director Robert S. Mueller, III has named Mary E. Galligan special agent in charge (SAC) of Cyber/Special Operations for the FBI’s New York Division. Ms. Galligan will serve as New York Division’s first female SAC. In this position, Ms. Galligan will direct the special agent, support, and task force personnel who provide strategic operational, investigative, and infrastructure support.

Ms. Galligan entered on duty as a special agent with the FBI in April 1988. Upon completion of training at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, she was assigned to the New York Division, where she handled terrorism investigations and intelligence gathering. Ms. Galligan was one of the on-scene commanders in Yemen to investigate the USS Cole attack, and she traveled to Tanzania in 1998 to work the U.S. Embassy bombing case. In 2001, she became a domestic terrorism squad supervisor in the New York Division and worked on various cases involving supremacy and extremist groups, anthrax, and bomb threats.

After the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, she supervised PENTTBOM, the FBI’s investigation of the attacks. Shortly after, she reported to FBI Headquarters and oversaw the entire investigation and a team of 75 people. In this role, Ms. Galligan briefed the FBI Director, the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, the 9/11 Commission and staff, members of the National Security Council, the media, the U.S. military, and families of 9/11 victims.

In August 2004, she was assigned as an assistant special agent in charge (ASAC) in the Administrative Division and was designated as ASAC in the Counterintelligence Division in February 2006. She returned to Headquarters in September 2008 as an inspector in the Inspection Division and was promoted in July 2009 to her current position as chief inspector overseeing the Office of Inspections.

Ms. Galligan is a native of Mineola, New York. She earned a bachelor’s degree from Fordham University and a master’s degree in psychology from the New School for Social Research. Ms. Galligan also attended the Law Enforcement Executive Development course at Princeton University and the Graduate School of Industrial and Labor Relations at Cornell University. She is certified as an FBI crisis coordinator, general police instructor, and National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime coordinator.