Cassandra McWilliams grew up in
Compton, Los Angeles. When she was eight years old, her single mother moved the family to
Geismar, Louisiana. As a child, she grew up wanting to be an attorney, thanks to her mother's urging. Cassandra McWilliams went on to major in journalism and English at
Louisiana State University, with the ambition of becoming a
television news anchor before attending law school. As she planned, McWilliams went on to work as a television reporter and news anchor for a
NBC affiliate in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She spent several years on-air before attending
Loyola Law School in New Orleans. Her first postings were to the New Orleans and then the Los Angeles field offices, where it was rare for a woman, and especially a black woman, to be a FBI special agent. Chandler described an early encounter in the field: "I remember once while a new agent in New Orleans, I was working on huge financial institution fraud cases. Well, I needed help carrying boxes to the office. I asked a couple of guys in the office for help. The senior officer looked at me and said, 'Can you carry those boxes up?' I said yes. He then asked if I was a special agent and I said yes. Finally he said, 'Do you carry a badge and gun like the rest of us?' I said yes. So he told me that I was capable of bringing the boxes up myself. At first I was mad. He later took me aside and said, 'You don't want to develop a reputation that shows others you can't do the job because you're a woman.' From that day forward, I carried myself like a special agent. I walked in being like everybody else and people respected that" In 1994, she was named as a supervisor of white collar crimes in the San Diego field office. There, she focused on cross-border crimes such as kidnappings and healthcare fraud. In San Francisco, Chandler specialized in financial crimes and health care fraud. In this role, she became the first woman to serve as a national spokesperson for the FBI. In 2005,
Robert S. Mueller III appointed Chandler as the special agent in charge of the FBI's field office in
Norfolk, Virginia.
Later career Chandler retired from the FBI in 2008 after 23 years of service. Over the course of her career at the FBI, she received the "Presidential Rank of Meritorious Executive Award,” the National Center for Women and Policing’s “Breaking the Glass Ceiling” Award, and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives’ “Phenomenal Woman” Community Service Award. After retiring from the FBI, In 2008, Cassi Chandler joined
Bank of America to work in the bank's health care and insurance fraud divisions. After her retirement, Chandler founded Vigeo Alliance, a company focusing on leadership and risk management. Today she serves as a speaker on managing risk and executive leadership. == See also ==