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Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory: The FBI’s Hazardous Devices School trains every civilian public-safety bomb technician in the nation, from initial certification to advanced instruction for experts.

The school’s instructors are all experienced bomb techs who’ve graduated from the Huntsville, Alabama-based institution. But when it comes to educating the next generation of public-safety professionals, they have a secret weapon.

FBI Instructional Systems Specialist Kelly Walker works with HDS staff to ensure that the elite school’s curriculum is developed, packaged, and delivered as efficiently and effectively as possible.

On this My Mission episode of Inside the FBI, we’ll learn how the former elementary school teacher leverages lessons learned from her classroom days—as well as a personal passion for technology—to help prepare bomb techs to protect communities from explosive threats.

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Walker: I am the curriculum specialist at the Hazardous Devices School. My job is to help each program manager make sure their curriculum is ready to go—anything from learning objectives to evaluation methods to visuals to practicals, even as far as working with logistics, to what equipment they may need to make that lesson work.

I have always wanted to be a teacher. My mom saved one of my drawings of first grade, and it was my friends sitting at a picnic table, and I was standing at the end of it teaching. She gave that to me when I graduated from high school.

It was my dream, and I stuck to it.

I went right into a teaching college, became a teacher.

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Another one of my sidekicks has been technology.

I've always been fascinated by technology.

When I was a senior in high school, we had to take computer design for the first time, and I actually had to write a program. And for the first time, they took the typewriters out of the high school and brought in word processors. I'll never forget that.

I was always the technology geek and I still am today. I’m always constantly trying to find, “What's the newest thing out there? Can we bring it in?”

So, one of my coworkers encouraged me to get a master's in curriculum technology.

Once I did that, then the school system I worked for hired me on as a technology resource teacher. I was now a technology specialist for 60-something teachers and over 300 elementary students, which meant I taught kindergarten through fifth grade how to use a computer, as well as teachers who didn't want anything to do with a computer. So, that that might’ve been preparing me for the HDS days.

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I taught for 22 years, and my dream was I was going to retire and get the rocking chair with a gold plaque on it with all my former students standing around. And life had other plans for me.

There was somebody that was working for the Bureau that just kept coming up to me and saying, “The Bureau needs teachers.”

And I just kept pushing him away and pushing him away. And he came up to me one more time and he goes, “Could it hurt to give me a resumé?” And I said, “Fine: Here's my resumé.”

A year later, I was working for Training Division.

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Training Division, to me, is the hub of education for the entire Bureau and sets out the guidelines.

I was one of eight teachers brought in in 2012, and that's where I started.

So, I went from a classroom of 24 first graders to writing curriculum for the Bureau, so there was a lot to learn there. And it's been a journey.

I've had the opportunity to package training for agents, IAs [intelligence analysts], SOSes [staff operations specialists], leadership. Then, I worked for [the] Security Division.

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As far as joining HDS, it is the community, the people.

I have always been a patriotic person. I came from a very patriotic town; a very, very patriotic family; and I've always honored public servants. And now, that's ten-fold, because now I'm working with some of the people that put their lives in danger, and I want to do all I can to help protect them, as well as the public.

We're seeing and working on things that most people don't know about, and it just keeps you inspired and motivated.

And that's why I do this, because if they're putting themselves on the line, I can keep doing what I'm doing with a passion because I want them to be safe, and I want them to turn around and be able to teach other people that not every day's bad, and we can turn the bad to good.

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Education has had a lot of ups and downs. Where I was teaching, everything was about testing. That's not why I got into teaching. So, to have a job offer where I could go into a program and help design and write curriculum that teachers were going to use kind of took me out of that testing atmosphere a little bit.

Now, I was sitting right inside a school. I was talking to students, talking to the instructors, going to some of the classes.

I have to credit some of the supervisors I had—some of the people I met in the Bureau—that showed me a different way to teach, showed me a different way to be a leader.

You have to stay on top of your game here. And I don't think I'll ever want to stop learning.

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Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory: That was Kelly Walker, an instructional systems specialist with the FBI’s Hazardous Devices School. You can visit fbi.gov to learn more about how our field offices support our mission and help keep Americans safe. You can also visit fbi.gov/mymission to hear other FBI personnel reflect on their unique missions within the Bureau.

This has been another production of Inside the FBI. You can follow us on your favorite podcast player, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. You can also subscribe to email alerts about new episodes at fbi.gov/podcasts.

I’m Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory from the FBI’s Office of Public Affairs. Thanks for tuning in.

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