Sullo named head of domestic operations at U.S. Department of State

Mark A.Sullo, a Hartford native, was recently named Deputy Assistant Secretary and Assistant Director of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service for Domestic Operations.

DSS is the law enforcement and security arm of the U.S. Department of State. It has the largest global presence of any U.S. law enforcement organization, operating at more than 270 U.S. diplomatic posts in over 170 countries, and in 33 U.S. cities. The organization is responsible for investigating transnational crimes and for protecting State Department facilities, people and information.

In his new role, Sullo oversees all DSS programs within the United States, including operations at all field and resident offices, facility security, criminal investigations, counterintelligence and protective operations.

He serves concurrently as the chair of the International Security Event Group, a multi-agency body of more than 20 U.S. agencies – coordinating all U.S. security and law enforcement planning for major overseas events such as the Olympic Games.

Sullo’s overseas postings include Iraq, Bahrain and Kuwait. Domestically, he has served in the office of Mobile Security Deployments whose team members defend U.S. embassies and consulates in critical threat situations; on the protective detail for the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations; as the high-threat strategy coordinator for the State Department’s security training reforms following the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya; and as the head of Protective Intelligence Investigations where he directed terrorism and threat investigations against the State Department, and managed the DSS relationship with U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism communities to prevent bad actors who intend to cause harm from reaching U.S. soil.

Most recently, he served as the Bureau of Diplomatic Security’s chief of staff. In that role, he demonstrated his expertise in counterterrorism, counterintelligence, investigations, and protective security as he assisted in overseeing all law enforcement and security issues impacting the State Department on behalf of the assistant secretary of state for Diplomatic Security.

During a tour in 2014-2015, he served

n the president’s National Security Council staff. Mr. Sullo helped coordinate with U.S. federal agencies to prevent and respond to threats against all official and private American interests overseas on behalf of the assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, the national security advisor and the president.

Since coming into government in 1994, Sullo has served under five U.S. presidents beginning with President Bill Clinton and extending to President Biden.

“And I have had a fantastic career. The Diplomatic Securities Service has been a great ride,” Sullo said in a phone interview on Monday. “It certainly has not been easy. My wife Amy and my kids, Madeline and Andrew, have been extremely supportive.”

Sullo said when he and his wife met, she told him she didn’t want a normal life.

“One thing I can tell you is that I kept that promise,” he said. “Amy has been my rock which everything else has been built.”

Sullo is a 1989 graduate of Ohio County High School and is the son of Donna McGuyer Stacey, of Ruskin, Fla. and the late Larry I. Ford.

He graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1994 with a bachelor of arts degree in mathematics. After graduation, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps and spent eight years on active duty before joining the Foreign Service in 2002 as a DSS special agent. He retired from the Marine Corps Reserve in 2015 as a lieutenant colonel. He also holds master’s degrees in security management from George Washington University and in national security strategy from the National War College in Washington, D.C., where he was one of 20 distinguished graduates out of a class of 208.

Yet, despite where he has been in his career, Ohio County has always been home, he said. The community instilled in him hard work, honesty and common sense which are traits he said that have carried him the furthest professionally.

“Ohio County has remained a steadfast constant in my life,” he said. “The values and bonds of love and friendship that I established here in my formative years have sustained me through my professional career.”

Sullo credits the people in his support system for getting him to where he is today.

“I am fond of the saying, ‘No person is an island’ and I had help along the way,” he said. “I’ve been blessed with what I will call good mentors and have gotten to do some really neat and interesting work for a kid from a small town.”