By Steve Neavling
The FBI has appointed Rachel A. Byrd as the new special agent in charge of its Mobile Field Office, the agency announced.
Byrd, who most recently oversaw investigations and operations in the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, has been with the bureau since 2004. She began her career in the Honolulu Field Office, where she worked cases involving violent crime, drugs, and gangs.
In 2010, she was promoted to a supervisory role in the Laboratory Division, overseeing the Evidence Response Team’s training program for more than 1,200 personnel. Four years later, she became the supervisory senior resident agent in the Jackson Field Office in Mississippi, managing investigations into gangs, drug trafficking, violent crime, and health care fraud.
Byrd transferred to the Mobile Field Office in 2017 as an assistant special agent in charge of its Criminal Branch before taking on national security matters. She later moved to the bureau’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., to lead the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate’s investigations.
Before joining the FBI, Byrd worked as a special agent for the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and as a medicolegal death investigator for the North Carolina Medical Examiner’s Office. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Fayetteville State University and a master’s degree in forensic toxicology from the University of Florida.
