White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, CIA Deputy Director Gina Haspel, and CIA Chief Operating Officer Brian Bulatao enter CIA Original Headquarters Building.

Update: C-Span Recording of live testimony

Senate Intelligence Committee Hearings

Gina Haspel joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the waning days of the Cold War, and for the past three decades she quietly devoted herself to serving on the front lines of the Agency's mission. She received many honors throughout her career, including the Intelligence Medal of Merit, a Presidential Rank Award, the Donovan Award, and the George H.W. Bush Award for Excellence in Counterterrorism.

Gina was born in Ashland, Kentucky, the oldest of five children. Her father served in the Air Force, having joined at 17, and she grew up on military bases overseas. But Kentucky was always her home away from home. Both her parents grew up there, and after graduating from high school in England, Gina returned home to attend the University of Kentucky, where she studied languages and majored in journalism. She remains an avid fan of Wildcat basketball even though she moved to Louisville her senior year for an internship and graduated with honors from the University of Louisville.

Her parents instilled in her a deep love of country and a commitment to public service. As a junior in high school, Gina came home and told her dad that she had figured out what she wanted to do with her life: she was going to attend West Point. Her dad had to gently break the news to her that West Point did not admit women. The pull of service and adventure, however, stayed with her.

After college, Gina worked as a contractor with the 10th Special Forces Group at Ft. Devens in Massachusetts. She ran the library and foreign language lab. The soldiers there made an impression, especially when it came to their global mission. Some of the soldiers (including a young Mike Vickers, who went on to become Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence), mentioned the CIA to her. Gina came to understand that CIA was a place where women could serve doing clandestine work around the world.

So she studied up on CIA, typed up a letter on her college manual typewriter, and sent it off. On the outside of the envelope she wrote simply, "CIA, Washington, D.C."

"I wanted to be part of something bigger than just me," she says. "I think with my dad's service in the military, I saw that as a natural affinity. I wanted an overseas adventure where I could put my love of foreign languages to use. CIA delivered."

Gina’s first overseas assignment was as a case officer in Africa. "It was right out of a spy novel. It really didn't get any better than that."

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