"It
was a very exciting moment, and I was extremely pleased," says
Tischler, who has been in law enforcement for almost 29 years. "I
thought that it was a real compliment, not only to me, but to all the
women who are in law enforcement in the federal sector."
The
trail-blazing Tischler, one of the very top women in federal law
enforcement, will be similarly honored at the annual Women in Federal
Law Enforcement conference in July, in Washington, D.C.
Breaking the glass . . .
In 1971, when President Nixon signed the executive order granting
women equal status in the federal law enforcement community, it was
necessary for a few pioneering women to open the doors and eventually
break the glass ceiling. Tischler helped do that.
When "women in federal law enforcement" was very nearly an oxymoron,
Tischler became a Customs Sky Marshal, eventually joining the ranks of
Customs Special Agents in 1977.
As
a Special Agent, she pioneered an oversight function, which would act
as a clearinghouse for various problems facing women in the federal
law enforcement community.
As
Tischler sees it, the job of law enforcement demands an enormous sense
of humor: "You must be able to laugh at your mistakes while learning
an intense lesson from them. You must learn to tell a good war story
and make fun of yourself. You must laugh. You must employ humor if you
are to succeed."
She
received her first big break in 1980 when she became the only female
agent assigned to the newly-formed task force in Miami known as
Operation Greenback, which became the first major federal
investigation into drug money laundering.
When detailed to the Office of the Federal Women's Program at the
Office of Personnel Management, she recruited other interested
individuals and developed what is now known as the Women in Federal
Law Enforcement Interagency Committee (WIFLE). She co-chaired the
Committee in 1984, and became the first recipient of the Julie Y.
Cross Memorial Award in recognition of her outstanding achievements in
law enforcement.
Her
expertise in money laundering investigations coupled with successful
undercover assignments landed Tischler in Washington where she became
the Director of the Financial Investigations Division, which later
became Smuggling Investigations, when narcotics and marine
interdiction were added to its duties in 1986.
In
1987, she was promoted to Special Agent in Charge of the Tampa office
where she supervised agents investigating money laundering at the Bank
of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) in what was to become one
of the largest money laundering cases ever prosecuted.
In
1995, Tischler returned to her home turf as Special Agent in Charge
for Miami, to supervise Customs' biggest and most active group of 360
agents and investigative personnel. In 1997, she was summoned to
Washington where she was selected to become Customs' first female
Assistant Commissioner for the Office of Investigations.
On
June 19, 2000, Tischler was appointed Assistant Commissioner for Field
Operations, effective July 1. She is the first woman to hold this post
with responsibility for all cargo and passenger processing of the
Customs Service. She will oversee approximately 13,000 Customs
employees at more than 300 Ports of Entry, Customs Management Centers,
and Field Laboratories.
Tischler has combined her expertise, poise, and confidence to become a
highly visible and popular representative of the Customs Service both
in the media and on Capitol Hill where she regularly testifies on
behalf of the Agency.
The road less traveled
Tischler likes to quote the Robert Frost poem "The Road Less Traveled"
in her speeches before women's law enforcement groups:
"I shall be
telling this with a sigh,
somewhere, ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -
I took the one less traveled by,
and that has made all the difference."
