On September 17, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Stacia A. Hylton to take over as director of the U.S. Marshals Service. She was confirmed by the Senate on December 22.

 

Hylton earned her B.S. in Criminal Justice in 1983 at Boston’s Northeastern University, which she attended on a full athletic scholarship.

 

She began what is now a 30-year career in law enforcement in 1980, serving until 1991 as a member of the Marshals Service Special Operations Group dive team, helicopter repel and stabo team, and as a water survival instructor. She has also been Assistant Director for the United States Marshals Service Prisoner Operations; Chief Deputy for the District of Columbia; an instructor at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center; an inspector in the Witness Security Program; and Chief of the Marshals Service Court Security Program. Additionally, she served in field operations in the District of Columbia, the Southern District of Florida, and the Eastern District of Virginia.

 

From January to June 2001, Hylton was designated by the Attorney General to be Acting Deputy Director of the U.S. Marshals Service. Also in 2001, she was Operational Commander for the Vieques, Puerto Rico, operation, and Incident Commander for the Marshals Service Emergency Response Team at Ground Zero after the September 11th terrorist attacks. In 2003 she was designated by the Director of the Marshals Service as the Agency Deciding Official for all adverse actions. She was appointed Federal Detention Trustee by Attorney General John Ashcroft on June 14, 2004, and served until February 2010. In this position, she was in charge of federal detainees awaiting trial or immigration proceedings.

 

She then formed Hylton Kirk & Associates, a consulting firm. In 2010 she received $112,500 in consulting fees from The GEO Group Inc., a private prison company that does extensive business with the Marshals Service.

 

Hylton has been an active member of the Highlands Swim and Tennis Club in McLean, Virginia.