Director Christopher Wray has named Larissa L. Knapp as the executive assistant director of the National Security Branch at FBI Headquarters in Washington. Ms. Knapp will oversee all national security investigative and intelligence operations, including counterintelligence, counterterrorism, and weapons of mass destruction cases, as well as the Terrorist Screening Center. Ms. Knapp most recently served as the EAD of the Human Resources Branch.
Ms. Knapp joined the FBI in 1997 as a special agent in the New York Field Office and investigated computer intrusion and intellectual property matters. She transferred to the FBI office on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, in 2003 to work counterterrorism cases.
In 2006, Ms. Knapp transferred to FBI Headquarters and served as a senior detailee to the CIA for the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. In 2011, she became field supervisor of a counterterrorism squad at the Washington Field Office, then in 2014 was promoted to assistant special agent in charge of intelligence at WFO.
Ms. Knapp was promoted in 2016 to section chief of the Counterterrorism Internet Operations Section in the Counterterrorism Division at Headquarters, where she led the coordination, support, and oversight of FBI investigations to detect and disrupt cyber terrorist networks and operatives.
In 2017, Ms. Knapp was named deputy assistant director of the Intelligence Operations Branch in the Directorate of Intelligence. She then returned to WFO in 2018 as the special agent in charge of the Counterterrorism Division and was later promoted to assistant director of the Security Division at Headquarters in 2020.
In 2021, Ms. Knapp was named EAD of the Human Resources Branch, which includes the Human Resources, Security, and Training divisions. While serving as the EAD, she also led the FBI’s business functions as the acting associate deputy director.
Ms. Knapp earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Union College in New York and a Juris Doctor from Hamline University in Minnesota.
