Stephen Woolery
Host Agency
Director, California Department of Justice, Bureau of Investigation

Stephen has over 30 years of law enforcement experience, of which 21 years was with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  Stephen began his career in 1999 as a special agent with the FBI. He was first assigned to the San Antonio Division, where he investigated violent gang criminal enterprises.  In 2005, Stephen was promoted to the position of supervisory special agent assigned to the Criminal Investigative Division, Safe Streets Gang Unit, at FBI headquarters.  In 2007, he was assigned to the Albuquerque Division as a Safe Streets Gang Task Force squad supervisor.  Stephen returned to FBI headquarters in 2009 to the Directorate of Intelligence where he earned Joint Duty Certification as a senior advisor on detail to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s Human Intelligence Office, where he worked closely with other members of the US Intelligence Community to improve human intelligence collection across the community.  In 2010, Stephen was assigned to the Counterterrorism Division as an assistant section chief in the Exploitation Threat Section.  In 2012, Stephen was selected as assistant special agent in charge (SAC) for Counterterrorism in the New York Office with oversight of all threat response components for the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Weapons of Mass Destruction response, all elements of the Crisis Management Response and all aspects of the Evidence Response Team.  From 2014 to 2015, Stephen served as chief of the National Security Branch (NSB) Executive Staff Section where he served as the chief of staff for the NSB’s Executive Assistant Director.  In 2015, Stephen was named SAC for the Counterterrorism Division of the Los Angeles Field Office, and in September 2017 Stephen was named SAC for the Intelligence Division of the Los Angeles Field Office.  In this role, Stephen was responsible for ensuring the integration of intelligence throughout operations in establishing investigative priorities.  Stephen also oversaw Los Angeles Field Office surveillance assets, Aviation Operations and Linguistics. Prior to joining the FBI, Stephen served as a police officer and detective with the Decatur Illinois Police Department for nine years.  He earned a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from the University of Illinois-Springfield and a master’s degree in political science from the Illinois State University. 

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