Julia Pierson Will Be the Secret Service's First Female Director

A pretty thick glass ceiling has been shattered today, with news coming that President Obama will appoint Julia Pierson to replace Mark Sullivan as the director of the Secret Service.

Pierson, who first became a special agent at the Miami Field Office in 1983, joined the agency’s supervisory ranks in 1996, and was appointed Chief of Staff in 2008. Her appointment does not require Senate confirmation.

The Washington Post further explains that Obama chose Pierson in part to help repair the Secret Service’s image after its much-publicized Colombian prostitution dalliances. Sullivan, the agency’s director for most of the past seven years, saw 13 of his agents and officers become involved in a scandal that overshadowed the president’s visit to Cartagena last year.