Throughout her 17 years in the FBI, Ashley Johnson routinely worked for women leaders.
“My first supervisor in New Orleans was female,” she said Monday during an interview at the bureau’s St. Louis office in Downtown West. “My first assistant special agent in charge in Atlanta, she was a female. I’ve had those opportunities along the way and was inspired by it.”
Until Johnson arrived in St. Louis in September, many agents at the bureau’s office had never worked for a female special agent in charge. Johnson is the first woman to lead the office full-time – something she did not realize until she arrived in the city for a family day.
“A lot of the employees here, they would introduce me to their young daughters or young sons, like, ‘She's the first female to ever come to this office,’” Johnson said. “So I think it hit me at that point. It’s humbling.”
Johnson was named to her current post on Sept. 9. Prior to that, she was with the bureau’s human resources division in Washington, D.C. She has spent the past month meeting with law enforcement partners and community leaders.
The following conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
Rachel Lippmann: What have you learned in your first month here?
Ashley Johnson: I’ve learned that all the leadership positions I’ve held to now have prepared me for this. Coming into the FBI, you have the investigative understanding as an agent. As you move up the ranks, you start to understand the importance of the people that you are leading. So in the month that I’ve been here, I have really learned that what I say and what I do has impact, and I have to be very diligent with that.
Lippmann: Violent crime is a priority here in St. Louis and across the country. Where does the FBI fit into that equation regionally?
Johnson: I want to be proactive in deterring or preventing actual crime from happening, and that happens with engagement with the community and helping the communities to understand they are partners with us. We need them to join the effort.
The key for me is to listen. Just get to understand the culture, the needs of the community, the needs of our law enforcement partners and how we can leverage these partnerships and resources to really fight crime or prevent crime.
Lippmann: What are you hearing about the best ways you can support your law enforcement and community partners?
Johnson: It’s engaging them from the onset – having a relationship and a partnership that isn’t just reactive when something happens, but having a relationship that allows us to exchange communication and have intelligence. Sometimes it can be a fun event, right? Everything that the FBI does is not always law enforcement, but just being in the community, showing up in various ways.
Lippmann: How does your background in social work inform what you do in law enforcement?
Johnson: That’s a good question. My first job coming out of college was in law enforcement, as a probation officer. And as a probation officer, you’re looking at individuals who are in the criminal justice system. You really start to understand them as people. They committed the crime. There’s accountability for that. But how did they get there?
That’s what I think informs me a lot, understanding the thought behind the action, listening to people, understanding what their needs are and giving them the resources to have that.
Lippmann: What were some of the social worker skill sets you found yourself using in your assignments?
Johnson: Listening. Your job is to really listen as a social worker. As a case agent, I investigated civil rights cases, which requires you to have a good relationship with the community and a good relationship with law enforcement, even when you’re investigating law enforcement. It was helping people understand what my role was, what resources I can bring them and empowering them to leverage them whatever way they could.
And interviewing skills. When I’m doing them, I can hear the social worker in me coming out.
Lippmann: In your time in Atlanta, you founded the Atlanta Development and Leadership Council. Tell me about that organization?
Johnson: Sometimes people [in the FBI] run from leadership because it has a stigma. You’re no longer in the field every day, doing the things that really attract us to this position. It was important for people to understand that leadership wasn’t necessarily associated with a title or a role that they had, but everyone was leading from where they were.
It wasn’t people who were already leaders. Some of our most junior employees, they were advisers, because when you’re leading it’s important to know, is it effective? It also showcased the diversity to the community, not just demographically, but backgrounds as well.
It’s something I’m very proud of, because I think that it incorporated the entire office and it gave us the skill sets we need for people to really develop themselves in whatever direction they wanted to go.
Lippmann: Do you want to bring it here to St. Louis?
Johnson: I definitely do.
Lippman What do you hope your legacy will be as special agent in charge of the St. Louis field office?
Johnson: Fairness. That I created a workplace where everyone feels valued, that what they bring to the table is appreciated, and maybe they may take that somewhere else, if they go somewhere else, into the community as well.
I would also love a legacy where the community sees the FBI not just as a law enforcement agency but as a partner.
Correction: A previous version of this story had incorrect dates in photo captions.
