A phone call led her to the Secret Service

A little networking landed Margaret Coggins, PhD, a job with the Secret Service right as she finished up her counseling psychology doctoral studies at the Catholic University of America.

When Coggins started her job search in 1983, she knew she wanted to work in a nonclinical setting, helping an organization?s employees with stress management, communication skills and conflict resolution. She combed the Washington Post classifieds for leads. And, acting on tips gleaned from her career counseling classes, she made a series of cold calls to potential employers. A manager at a government agency suggested she contact the head of the Secret Service employee-assistance program. Coggins called him, and, several meetings later, he offered her a counseling job in the agency?s employee-assistance program.

'The timing was really fortunate,' says Coggins. 'We exchanged résumés, hit it off and lo and behold, a position became available.'

At age 30, Coggins had finally entered the kind of psychological work she finds satisfying. She?d always been interested in psychology?she studied it as a high school student in Washington, D.C., and she majored in it at Dickinson College. But her postcollege job as an entry-level researcher at the U.S. Department of Transportation took her away from the field, and Coggins decided she missed it.

'I quickly realized that this was not the work I wanted to do for the next 30 years, and psychology was,' say Coggins.

To bolster her psychology qualifications, she enrolled in Catholic University?s master?s program in psychology. There she also received the doctoral degree that led her to the Secret Service. Working as an agency counselor, Coggins helped agents and their families deal with the complications that arise from the demands of law enforcement work. For example, the agency constantly relocates agents to new offices, which means their children must frequently adjust to different schools.

Coggins also provided support to agents who were injured in the line of duty. 'It?s a dangerous job,' she says. 'We lost six agents in [the] Oklahoma City [bombing].' Looking for a break from counseling in 1987, Coggins went to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to help develop employee-assistance resources for IRS agents and investigators. But, unable to stay away from the Secret Service, she returned there in 1989 to do research for the agency?s Intelligence Division, which investigates threats against protected officials. She?s since been promoted to chief of behavioral research and plans to stay with the agency.

'I?m fortunate,' Coggins says, 'because I love what I do.'

?Bridget Murray