Live at the 21st Annual WIFLE Leadership Training
Each year, the Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE) Leadership Training brings together women from across federal law enforcement for informative sessions, recruitment initiatives, and an awe-inspiring awards ceremony. This year, FEDtalk recorded live from the event in Tampa, Florida to give listeners an inside look at the event themes, presenters and sessions, guest speakers, and award winners.
Host Natalia Castro sat down with WIFLE President Cathy Sanz and Vice President Jessie Lane to discuss highlights from this year’s training. Attendees included law enforcement officers and agents from nearly every federal law enforcement agency.
Sanz noted the State Department brought in 28 women from different law enforcement agencies across Mexico to provide an international viewpoint. “It was not something we have done in the past and it was a challenge but we were all for it. They have brought perspective to classes that was unexpected and enlightening,” Sanz explained.
This year’s theme was Real Talk: How to Address Law Enforcement Challenges Through Collective Strength. Sessions around this theme included discussions on navigating a male dominated career, flash mentoring sessions, and panels on race and culture.
WIFLE Vice President Lane discussed the challenging session on the first day called: The History of Women in Law Enforcement, Challenging Institutional and Structural Racism and Promoting Social Justice and Racial Equity. The conversation involved sensitive topics such as police reform in the era of George Floyd. Lane explained that the session was successful because the presentation was presented in a way that positively and consciously discussed ways to reimagine and improve policing.
Conference presenter Dr. Jean Kanokogi was a panelist on the session and discussed what she learned and what she hopes attendees took away from the discussion. Kanokogi also discussed her training presentation on stress management.
Finally, in the third segment, Kanokogi provided a sneak peek into her new book Get Up & Fight and explained what it means for women and women in federal law enforcement. WIFLE featured a discussion on the book during the training’s Member Reception. Sanz explained how supporting agents like Kanokogi in their endeavors aligns with WIFLE’s mission to recruit, retain, and advocate for women in federal law enforcement.
The book tells the story of Kanokogi’s mother, Rusty Kanokogi, a fierce Judo champion who paved the way for women in the sport. The book is filled with stories of resiliency, physical and mental fortitude, and finding your path. Kanokogi discussed the many lessons for women, federal officials, and law enforcement officers in the book as well as tips for federal employees who may be interested in writing their our novel.
Finally, two WIFLE award winners sat down with FEDtalk to discuss their award winning work. Homeland Security Investigations Immigration and Customs Enforcement Program Manager Suzanne Priest received the WIFLE Leadership Award for her work on a team preventing female gentile mutilation (FGM). Priest discussed the work educating federal agencies and the public on this critical issue.
“[Our team] educates folks – federal law enforcement agencies as well as private sector NGOs, community members, anybody we can get our hands on essentially – about the FGM issue, the legal issues behind it, and we really strive to do prevention work more than prosecutions… Right now, [FGM] has become a shadow pandemic behind COVID because during COVID with lockdowns a lot of these children, minor female children under the age of 15 are really at risk for undergoing FGM,” Priest explained.
Priest explained the important role education plays in preventing FGM before it occurs, saying, “We have done church events, we have been to universities, every time we go out to homeland security investigation office to train our special agents we always community members. We work with our community relations officers to coordinate an event and we will actually go out and host training event on FGM and give them resources on where to look for survivor assistance. W usually invite a survivor with us to share their story as well.”
Recipient of the Outstanding Federal Law Enforcement Employee award, Sharon MacDermott is a resident agent in charge at the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General.
MacDermott explained, “With regard to what I do with the SSA, I supervise a group of people who investigate all forms of social security fraud. In particular, with regard to the award, it was nice to recognized for some of my favorite investigations over the years. The reason why they were my favorite is because a lot of work that investigators do tends to be solitary – looking at records, writing reports, and working by yourself – but these cases in particular were very collaborative. They’re large scale investigations that involve several agencies and really the type of investigations that were not done before. It was paving a new path, coming up with new and creative ways of investigating, they were just things that were not done before and there was no script to follow so we kinda had to figure it out on our own. It took a small army to put these cases together.”
MacDermott also discussed her work combatting financial crimes, particularly in the paycheck protection program established to combat COVID hardship.
Both Priest and MacDermott provided advice for women in federal law enforcement and tips for navigating their careers.
Listen to the full show today on any major podcasting platform and stay tuned for more information on WIFLE 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona.
You can stream the show online anytime via the Federal News Network app and listen to the FEDtalk podcast on PodcastOne and Apple Podcasts.
FEDtalk is a live talk show produced by Shaw Bransford & Roth P.C., a federal employment law firm. Bringing you the insider’s perspective from leaders in the federal community since 1993.
FEDtalk is sponsored by the Federal Long Term Care Insurance Program (FLTCIP). The FLTCIP is sponsored by the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, insured by John Hancock Life & Health Insurance Company, under a group long term care insurance policy, and administered by Long Term Care Partners, LLC (doing business as FedPoint).
