Jonna Mendez

Description

Jonna Mendez
Former Chief of Disguise, CIA

Monday, March 11, 2024 at 12:00 pm

The Forum Club of the Palm Beaches will present the CIA’s first female Chief of Disguise, Jonna Mendez, on Monday, March 11, 2024 at Noon, at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

Mendez is a retired CIA intelligence officer with more than 25 years of service. She joined the Central Intelligence Agency in Europe in 1966 and lived under cover for several decades, serving tours of duty in Europe, the Far East, and the Subcontinent, as well as at CIA Headquarters. In 1970 she joined CIA’s Office of Technical Service. Her duties included preparing the agency’s most highly placed foreign assets to gather high priority intelligence using subminiature spy cameras and other espionage technology and techniques.

 Recognized as a future leader early on, Jonna was selected for an exclusive yearlong program designed for officers with high potential. She took these skills overseas, adding disguise and identity transformation to her extensive roster of skills. Returning to Langley in 1986, she was assigned to Denied Area Operations for disguise, focusing her efforts on the most difficult and hostile areas where she and her colleagues matched wits with the KGB, the East German Stasi and the Cuban DGI. She was promoted to Chief of Disguise in 1991 where she ran a multi-million-dollar program with staff positioned around the world. She retired from the government in 1993.

Since retirement Jonna and her husband have written several books, including Spy Dust, ARGO, and The Moscow Rules. Her next book, In True Face, A Woman’s Life in the CIA, Unmasked, will be available for purchase at the event thanks to a partnership with Pyramid Books.

This Event is Sold Out.

SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR 

PRESIDENT'S GOLD CIRCLE