Sheila L. Stephens was the first female Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms (ATF) special agent in the state of AlabamaBone of the first in the nation.  Recruited by
ATF while a police officer in Mountain Brook, Alabama, she has a unique platform
from which to write and speak about the people and issues of law enforcement.

         She is a graduate of The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, the Alabama State Trooper Academy and the University of Alabama, holding degrees in Deaf Education and in Criminal Justice.  In September 2007, she graduated from Boston University with a Master's Degree in Criminal Justice and began teaching at Andrew Jackson University.

         While a special agent with ATF, she was a member of the National Response Team, a select group of first responders to arson and explosives scenes.  Also
chosen as a representative to the multi-agency, multi-state offensive against a
deadly white supremacy group in Arkansas, she participated as a member of the entry team, the search team and the select interview team.

         She holds certificates in the areas of Education, Neurolinguistic Pro-
gramming, Interviewing/Interrogation, Hypnosis, and Street Survival.  She has
taught at the Birmingham Police Academy, and has been the owner/operator of a security and private investigative agency specializing in hidden camera technology for police departments, businesses, and the monitoring of care-givers.

          While on injury leave from ATF, she was poisoned with arsenic and mercury. Although not expected to recover, she continued to write and study.  Because of
this, the director and organizers of the Yosemite Writer's Conference created a scholarship in her name.  The scholarship rewards excellence of artistic talent as
well as perseverance in the face of adversity.

         At the August 2004 conference, the first Sheila L. Stephens Scholarship was awarded by Stephens herself.In the year 2005, she returned to the Yosemite Conference as a presenter, sharing the same information on law enforcement
issues that she presents at organizations and conferences around the country.
She recently presented The "CSI Effect" on Crime Labs at the New England School
of Law, and wrote an article that will appear in their Journal.