Shawn A. Brokos
Director, Community Security, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh; Retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent; Director, Community Security, Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
2023
Shawn A. Brokos became a Special Agent (SA) for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on January 7, 1996, and retired December 31, 2019 after spending 24 years in federal law enforcement. After graduating from Quantico, she was assigned to the Newark (NJ) Division, where she worked Public Corruption, Gangs and Violent Crimes, and RICO-based investigations.
After 18 years in Newark, SA Brokos transferred to the Pittsburgh Division, where, from 2014 to 2016, she supervised the Complex Financial Crime Program, and established a Health Care Fraud Task Force (HCFTF) to tackle the onset of the Opioid Epidemic. From 2017 to 2018, Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) Brokos established a new Opioid Squad, comprised of the HCFTF, an Opiate Overdose Task Force, and a Darknet Fentanyl Task Force. The focus was to dismantle the supply of illegal opioids and opiates that were responsible for the high number of fatal overdoses in Western PA. In 2019, SSA Brokos became the supervisor for the Civil Rights, Public Corruption, and Complex Financial Crime Squad. The priority of this Squad was the prosecution of Hate Crimes, and SSA Brokos oversaw the Tree of Life investigation (US v. Robert Bowers).
In addition to her work as a squad supervisor, she was a Bureau-certified Crisis Negotiator since 2001and served as the Coordinator for Pittsburgh’s Crisis Negotiation Team from 2015-2018. From May 2018 to December 2019, she served as the FBI Pittsburgh’s Crisis Management Coordinator (CMC). She had a leading role in the FBI’s Pittsburgh Training Team who received the 2016 FBI Director’s Award for Excellence in Training and Professional Development.
In January 2020, Brokos began her role as Director of Community Security for the Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh where she currently oversees physical security enhancements, Active Threat training, threat mitigation, and law enforcement and community liaison for the 62 organizations that comprise Jewish Pittsburgh. From January 2020 to the present, Brokos has overseen the installation and training for the BluePoint emergency alert system in 18 Jewish locations, facilitated over $5.5M in state and federal security grant awards for Jewish organizations, distributed life-saving GoBags to over 520 classrooms and facilities, and trained over 26,000 members of the community in Active Threat and life-saving tactics.
The inaugural Eradicate Hate Summit was a truly impressive gathering of leaders dedicated to finding lasting and effective solutions to violent extremism. I was particularly moved by the prominence given to survivors and family members of victims of hate and violence throughout the event. Their stories and those of so many others must be at the center of what we do and why we do it.
