As an undergraduate majoring in history at USC Dornsife, Tracy Walder had planned to become a teacher. Until the CIA recruited her. Not long after graduating, the former sorority sister known for dressing in pink was wearing camouflage fatigues, toting an assault rifle and hunting down Al-Qaeda as a counterterrorism field agent in the aftermath of 9/11.

Returning to the U.S., she made the almost-unheard-of-transition to the FBI, where she continued to take down bad guys out of the L.A. field office.

In this engaging video, Walder was interviewed by USC Dornsife historian Peter Mancall, divisional dean for the humanities, answering questions about her larger-than-life career as a spook — and why she left that life behind to return to her first love: teaching history.

The USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences is the academic core of the University of Southern California in the heart of Los Angeles. Learn more: https://dornsife.usc.edu/