Kris Beardsley

Biography

Kris Beardsley was an Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) of a Counterintelligence Branch in the Los Angeles (LA) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Field Office, before retiring from the FBI. She supervised seven Supervisory Special Agents, 54 Special Agents, and over 30 Intelligence Analysts and Professional Staff to protect the LA region from national security and counterintelligence threats. She was the senior Agent assigned to the Long Beach Resident Agency.

Prior to her promotion to ASAC, Kris was a Unit Chief in the Counterintelligence Division, where she created numerous policies and strategies, including the first Foreign Influence Task Force strategy on countering foreign malign influence threats posed by the government of the People’s Republic of China.

Early in her career, her assignments included serving as the FBI LA Field Office’s Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Coordinator and overseeing program management of FBI’s Bioterrorism Prevention Program while at FBI Headquarters (FBIHQ). As the WMD Coordinator, she was responsible for providing the FBI’s initial response to a possible WMD terrorist event and served as the Incident Commander to over 50 responses, coordinating among local, state, and federal emergency responders and agencies. As a program manager in the FBI’s Bioterrorism Program, she led debriefings of the Amerithrax investigative team and developed lessons learned, which eventually formed the basis of Executive Order 13546, which was created to prevent bioterrorism acts like the 2001 Anthrax attack.

As a result of her accomplished policy background and experience, she was detailed to the White House National Security Council’s WMD Coordinator’s Office, where she served as the Director of Countering Biological Threats under President Barack Obama. She oversaw the implementation of numerous policies, including leading EO 13546, successfully bridging gaps between numerous stakeholders, including the scientific community, government regulators, and Congress. She also helped create the Global Health Security Agenda, an international policy designed to build health security capacity across designated countries to prevent the spread of pandemics, like COVID and ebola.

Before entering the FBI, Kris was an officer in the US Army for seven years. She held an array of positions and mostly served as a tactical intelligence and security officer. She entered the Army after graduating from the United States Military Academy, West Point, in May 1993.  Kris also earned a Master of Science in Biosecurity and Disaster Preparedness from Saint Louis University.