Professional Experience
As an FBI Special Agent Maria Witkop built a highly successful career spanning the gamut from undercover sting operations and complex financial crimes to long-term sophisticated nation state espionage investigations. Selected and trained as an FBI negotiator, Agent Witkop taught hundreds of State and Local law enforcement officers how to build trust in life threatening situations to achieve peaceful resolutions. Her ability to work with people from across the world and her advanced degree in International Diplomacy expanded her career into the FBI’s elite Behavioral Analysis Program. A distinguished program comprised of forensic psychologists and seasoned counterintelligence agents who serve as national security “profilers”. In her leadership role on both these critical teams, Agent Witkop engendered, sustained, and enhanced relationships of trust. She recruited individuals from authoritarian regimes around the world who risked their lives to protect the security of the United States.