Anna M. Winningham
FBI-Trained Investigator · Security & Crisis Management Leader · Expert Witness
Anna M. Winningham is President of Risk Control Strategies and a former Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation with more than a decade directing complex, high-stakes investigations. Over a 13-year FBI career she served as both case agent and Supervisory Special Agent, leading long-term matters across organized crime, narcotics, counter-terrorism, kidnapping, and extortion — and, in her final assignment, commanding the crisis-response components of the Bureau's Los Angeles Field Office. Today she brings that same discipline to corporations, law firms, and family offices facing investigations, security exposure, and crisis.
Contact us for a case consultation →About Anna
Anna built her career on the most consequential kind of investigative work — the kind where the stakes are measured in lives, liability, and time that can't be taken back.
As a Supervisory Special Agent, she ran the Crisis Response Squad of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, with oversight of the Evidence Response Team, the Crisis Negotiations Team, the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team, and the Weapons of Mass Destruction response components. That is command experience across the full arc of a crisis: planning before it happens, managing it while it unfolds, and preserving the evidence that determines what happens after. The through-line in her work has always been the same — extract what's pertinent, do it cleanly, and make it hold up.
That discipline carries directly into her work for RCS clients. She pairs the evidentiary rigor of a federal investigator — proper collection and preservation of evidence, including electronically stored information; managed surveillance; structured investigative interviews — with the strategic perspective of someone who has led security and crisis operations at the national level. When a matter needs more than one discipline at the table, she has run the table before.
Anna is also a sought-after expert and resource, regularly engaged to bring federal-grade investigative and security judgment to private-sector problems.
A military veteran before she was a federal agent, Anna served in the U.S. Army as an Ordnance Officer assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division — and she maintains her long-standing ties to FBI executive leadership through the Society of Former Special Agents and the FBI's InfraGard.
Expert Witness & Court Experience
Anna provides expert-witness testimony on matters involving workplace violence, digital forensic investigations, and physical and cyber security. Her federal training in the proper collection and preservation of evidence means every engagement is handled as if it is headed for litigation — because the discipline that makes evidence defensible cannot be added after the fact.
Certifications & Credentials
- Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP®)
- Former FBI Special Agent and Supervisory Special Agent — 13-year tenure, including command of the Los Angeles Crisis Response Squad
- Extensive FBI training in evidence collection and preservation, surveillance management, and investigative interviewing
- B.A., University of Texas at El Paso — specialization in Soviet and East European Politics
- Russian School, Middlebury College, Vermont
- U.S. Army veteran — Ordnance Officer, 82nd Airborne Division
Professional Associations: Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI · FBI InfraGard
Areas of Focus
Strategic Planning & Crisis Response
Continuity of operations, disaster recovery, incident management, crisis resolution, and the tactical execution of security and crisis-management operations.
CSO / CISO Advisory Services
Chief Security Officer and Chief Information Security Officer services for private and corporate clients, drawing on federal-level security command experience.
Complex Investigations
Workplace violence, threat assessment, digital forensic investigations, and physical and cyber security matters — supported by federal evidentiary standards.
Work With Anna
Whether your matter involves a workplace-violence threat, a security or crisis exposure, a digital forensic investigation, or the kind of high-stakes situation that needs federal-grade judgment, Anna and the Risk Control Strategies team are ready to help.
Contact us for a case consultation →
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Anna Winningham's qualifications?
Anna is a former FBI Special Agent and Supervisory Special Agent with 13 years of federal investigative experience, including command of the crisis-response components of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office. She is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP®) and a U.S. Army veteran.
Does Anna Winningham provide expert-witness testimony?
Yes. Anna serves as an expert witness on matters involving workplace violence, digital forensic investigations, and physical and cyber security.
What types of matters does Anna handle?
Strategic security and crisis planning, workplace-violence and threat assessment, CSO/CISO advisory services, and complex investigations for private and corporate clients.
What is Anna's background before RCS?
A 13-year FBI career spanning organized crime, narcotics, counter-terrorism, kidnapping, and extortion investigations, capped by a supervisory role over the Bureau's Los Angeles crisis-response teams. Before the FBI, she served as a U.S. Army Ordnance Officer with the 82nd Airborne Division.