The Guardian

At the Secret Service, Barbara Riggs helped chart the course for homeland security.

Barbara Riggs was a few hours away from retirement in 2003 when she got the phone call. It was the new director of the Secret Service, Ralph Basham, asking her if she'd stay at the agency to help with his transition. "I said, 'Ralph, you've got to be kidding,' " Riggs recalled, laughing. At the time, she was executive assistant to the director, serving as the chief liaison between the Secret Service and the secretary of the Treasury Department, the agency's former home. President Bush had tapped Basham, a former Secret Service official, to return to the agency and lead it during its transition to the Homeland Security Department. Basham, now commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, wanted someone he knew well-and trusted-in his inner circle. "He talked me into staying, and created a chief of staff position for me," says Riggs. "And then he made me deputy director."

Make that the first female deputy director of the agency, charged with protecting the White House and the integrity of the nation's currency. Riggs, who finally retired in January 2006, has had a long and varied 31-year career with the Secret Service, including many firsts. In the 1990s, during the George H.W. Bush administration, she became the first female supervisor in the history of the agency assigned to the White House. "I never had any female supervisors my entire career, but there were a lot of men who were mentors to me," says Riggs, who started at the agency in 1975 after graduating early from Cornell University. "So, for the number of people who might not have thought that women could do the job, there were just as many who provided great opportunities for me to show that I could do the job."

During her career, which also included supervisory positions at the agency's New York and Los Angeles field offices, Riggs oversaw the creation of the National Threat Assessment Center used for all special security events, including the 2001 presidential inauguration and the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. In the 1990s, she developed and managed a security system-still in place-for the airspace around the White House. It was executed during the 2001 terrorist attacks and was a critical factor in the successful evacuation of the White House that day. She also helped develop a threat information- sharing system for federal and state law enforcement agencies responsible for the protection of public officials. Riggs pushed the Secret Service to recruit candidates outside law enforcement, including engineers, behavioral scientists and software engineers.

Riggs, 55, grew up in Albany, N.Y., and credits her upbringing with instilling confidence and independence. Her parents encouraged her to travel. By the time she was 17, the avid horsewoman was exploring places like Lima, Peru, on her own. As a result, she never possessed the kind of hesitancy that can stunt a career: "I don't always make the right decision, but I am not afraid to make a decision."