Tracy Walder

Tracy Walder is the perfect definition of an accidental spy. She was born and brought up in a family of California educators and loved dancing and singing in musicals when she was in high school. Tracy was ten when she decided to become a history teacher. In college, she intended to apply for a teaching job during the jobs fair, but she started chatting with the CIA recruiter whose table was empty. The recruiter turned out to be very good and by the time she left the table, she decided to make history as opposed to teaching it. While she has been somewhat shy in college, she has always been interested in world affairs. In 1997, while watching Peter Arnett and Peter Bergen interview Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, the latter issued a fatwa. Needing to know more about that, the seed began to grow and a few weeks following the jobs fair she took the CIA polygraph test and passed.