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A Life Undercover: Meet Retired DEA Special Agent Rosalynde Fenner

WUNC | By Anita Rao,
Frank Stasio
Published January 30, 2017 at 11:30 AM EST

Meet retired DEA special agent Rosalynde Fenner

  Note: This program is a rebroadcast from January 25, 2016.

Rosalynde Fenner has always been fearless. As a young kid growing up in Durham, she called cabs for herself and took them alone wherever she wanted to go. In high school, she spent a week doingride-alongswith an officer in the Durham Police Department. And at the age of 22, she embarked on a 25 year career as a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration, including stints in Guatemala, Bolivia, New York City, and Puerto Rico. 

Fenner is now an adjunct professor at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh, and the president of the North Carolina Chapter of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE).

Host Frank Stasio talks with Rosalynde Fenner about her storied career and her reflections on the criminal justice system today.

Rosalynde Fenner age 6. Fenner grew up in Durham where her grandparents owned a corner store.
Rosalynde Fenner /
Rosalynde Fenner age 6. Fenner grew up in Durham where her grandparents owned a corner store.
Rosalynde Fenner on the first day at the Jungle Operations Training Center where she trained for her overseas counter-narcotics missions.
Rosalynde Fenner /
Rosalynde Fenner on the first day at the Jungle Operations Training Center where she trained for her overseas counter-narcotics missions.
DEA Special Agent Rosalynde Fenner serving in a counter-narcotics operation in the Chaparé region of Bolivia in the late 1980s.
Rosalynde Fenner /
DEA Special Agent Rosalynde Fenner serving in a counter-narcotics operation in the Chaparé region of Bolivia in the late 1980s.
Rosalynde Fenner in the late 80s when she was serving time overseas as part of 'Operation Snowcap,' a counter-narcotics operation in 12 Latin American countries.
Rosalynde Fenner /
Rosalynde Fenner in the late 80s when she was serving time overseas as part of 'Operation Snowcap,' a counter-narcotics operation in 12 Latin American countries.
Rosalynde Fenner is now a retired DEA special agent working as an adjunct professor at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh.
Rosalynde Fenner /
Rosalynde Fenner is now a retired DEA special agent working as an adjunct professor at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh.

Copyright 2017 North Carolina Public Radio
Anita Rao
Anita Rao is the host and creator of "Embodied," a live, weekly radio show and seasonal podcast about sex, relationships & health. She's also the managing editor of WUNC's on-demand content. She has traveled the country recording interviews for the Peabody Award-winning StoryCorps production department, founded and launched a podcast about millennial feminism in the South, and served as the managing editor and regular host of "The State of Things," North Carolina Public Radio's flagship daily, live talk show. Anita was born in a small coal-mining town in Northeast England but spent most of her life growing up in Iowa and has a fond affection for the Midwest.
See stories by Anita Rao
Frank Stasio
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
See stories by Frank Stasio