Wroblewski named Bureau of Diplomatic Security deputy assistant secretary and assistant director of diplomatic security service domestic operations

Andrew Wroblewski was named deputy assistant secretary and assistant director of the U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS) for domestic operations on October 3, 2022.

As deputy assistant secretary and assistant director for domestic operations, Wroblewski is responsible for all DSS protective operations, counterintelligence, criminal investigations, domestic facility protection, and operations at all DSS Field and Resident Offices throughout the United States. He also serves as the interagency chair of the International Security Event Group – coordinating all U.S. security and law enforcement planning for major overseas events such as the Olympic Games.

Wroblewski didn’t grow up close to his Choctaw roots, and it wasn’t until his mid 20’s that he started researching his Choctaw heritage. The information wasn’t easy to come by. Wroblewski started with his grandmother. “I talked to her, and she actually wouldn’t tell me anything. She had passed for white her whole life, and that’s how she wanted to be seen. Her sister, however, was the one who turned me on to it and was telling me family stories and everything else,” said Wroblewski.

During his research, he found that his grandmother didn’t have a birth certificate, but she did have a passport, so he filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to begin the process of getting a delayed birth certificate for his grandmother so that he could complete his citizenship paperwork. Now he and his children are all registered tribal members.

Wroblewski has proudly served his country all over the world as a DSS agent and a Choctaw tribal member. He said that working for the DSS has been an extremely rewarding career.

“We’re the law enforcement and security arm at the State Department. Our closest counterpart that [most] people have heard of is the U.S. Secret Service,” said Wroblewski.

Wroblewski said that while most people assume the motorcades they see in Washington D.C are the Secret Service, it’s most likely DSS. “Everybody just assumes that’s secret service because we have the black Suburbans, little wireless earpiece and everything else,” said Wroblewski.

While the Secret Service is tasked with protecting heads of state, investigating credit card fraud and counterfeit money, the DSS is charged with safeguarding embassies, diplomats and other Americans overseas, as well as investigating fraudulent passports and visas, serving as a front line to those trying to enter the country illegally.

“Basically, at every Embassy and Consulate in the world, there will be at least one, if not multiple Diplomatic Security Service Special Agents assigned to liaise with the host government and then to ensure our embassy or consulate and other diplomatic facility are protected,” said Wroblewski.

Before being named deputy assistant secretary and assistant director of DSS, Wroblewski was the special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office. His responsibilities included establishing criminal investigative priorities in the national capital region and DSS resident offices in adjacent states. He also provided support for the DSS’s broader mission of protecting foreign dignitaries and U.S. diplomats both domestically and abroad.

Wroblewski started working with DSS in 1998 and has since served in various overseas assignments focusing on counterintelligence, counterterrorism, criminal investigation, and technical security programs in Ankara, Turkey; New Delhi, India; Asmara, Eritrea; and Nassau, Bahamas.

Before returning to the United States, Wroblewski was the minister-counselor for Diplomatic Security for the U.S. Mission to China. As the senior U.S. law enforcement representative in China, Wroblewski served as the principal advisor to the ambassador on all security issues. He also led all DSS counterintelligence, counterterrorism, criminal investigations and technical security programs.

Wroblewski always says that whatever his last post was is his favorite, but he does have a couple that stand out. He assisted with evacuating Americans from Wuhan, China, as COVID spread. “I helped coordinate that as part of our protection of Americans overseas; it was one of the largest evacuations that the State Department’s done,” said Wroblewski.

In 2013, he was named the Diplomatic Security employee of the year. “That was because we had a suicide bomber walk into the embassy outer perimeter where we do our guard screening and blew himself up,” said Wroblewski. Because of the programs and procedures Wroblewski put into place, he wasn’t able to access the compound and do more damage.

Wroblewski was most recently awarded the Presidential Rank Award for Meritorious Executive, an award that’s given to no more than 5% of the career members of the Senior Executive Service.
Growing up in Kansas, Wroblewski always wanted to work in federal law enforcement; he briefly considered becoming an English teacher but is glad he ultimately landed with DSS. Wroblewski encourages anybody considering a career in law enforcement to look into DSS.

“You get to be a federal agent; you get to live and work overseas; the government sends you to learn foreign languages and you get paid while you’re doing it. I’ve spent a year learning Turkish and another year learning Chinese. You learn the language and then you go work in the country for three or four years. [You] see the world, get paid for it and get well taken care of,” said Wroblewski.