Colorado State Archives

Executive Orders from the Administration of Governor Bill Owens 1999-2005

DENVER – Governor Bill Owens today announced the appointment of Suzanne Mencer, a twenty-year veteran of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), as the director of the Department of Public Safety. Mencer replaces Ari Zavaras who resigned to become public safety director for the City of Denver.

"Suzanne Mencer served with great distinction for twenty years as an FBI Special Agent," Owens said. "She has an outstanding career of working with local law enforcement agencies."

Mencer began her career as an FBI agent in Alabama and then New York City where she participated in operations utilizing the English and Spanish languages from 1978 to 1986. She served as Supervisory Special Agent at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C. where she was in charge of investigations in country specific areas of national security from 1986 to 1990. She also was responsible for preparing the congressional budget for the National Security Division of the FBI during this time.

Mencer moved to the Denver FBI Office in 1990 where she supervised a squad of special agents, analysts, local law enforcement officers, and other federal agency investigators in the Joint Terrorism Task Force. During her time in Denver she also supervised investigations dealing with civil rights, foreign counterintelligence, economic espionage, and international and domestic terrorism.

She left the FBI in 1998 and has since worked as a consultant providing anti-terrorism training to local law enforcement throughout the United States in cooperation with the Institute for Intergovernmental Research.

She most recently has served on the Jefferson County School District Task Force for School Safety, the Governor’s Columbine Review Commission, and the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline.

Prior to her service in the FBI, Mencer taught Spanish in public schools in Florida, Ohio and Missouri from 1968 to 1978. She is a graduate of the Ohio State University.

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