Author Event: Christina Hillsberg | AGENTS OF CHANGE

Join us at Bards Alley for a discussion between author and former CIA intelligence officer Christina Hillsberg and the Badass Women's Book Club founder Gina Warner. They will be in conversation about Christina's newest release, Agents of Change: The Women Who Transformed the CIA, an exploration of the pioneering women who changed the world of espionage, from the 1960s to present-day.

The event will take place at Bards Alley Bookshop in Vienna, VA on Thursday, June 26th at 6:00PM. You may reserve a book under your name as an add-on, but additional copies will be available for purchase during the event, and Christina will be signing copies after her discussion.

About the book:
Years after her successful and impactful career at the CIA, Christina Hillsberg became enthralled with the stories of the trailblazing women who forged new paths within the Agency long before she began her career there in the aughts. These were women who sacrificed their personal lives, risked their safety, defied expectations, and boldly navigated the male-dominated spy organization.

Through exclusive interviews with current and former female CIA officers, many of whom have never spoken publicly, Agents of Change tells an enthralling and, at times, disturbing story set against the backdrop of the evolving women’s movement. It was in the 1960s, a “secretarial” era, when women first gained a foothold and pushed against the one-dimensional, pop-culture trope of the sexy Cold War Bond Girl. Underestimated but undaunted, they fought their way, decade by decade, through adversity to the top of the spy game.

Seamlessly weaving together the individual stories of these exceptional women, Hillsberg deftly tackles not just the fight for gender equality at the CIA but also the current dilemma the Agency faces when dealing with the culmination of a decades-long culture of sexual harassment and assault. Each chapter sheds a light on women’s issues during a different decade before bringing to life the stories of female CIA operations officers whose experiences were emblematic of that given era. In this fascinating and empowering chronicle, Hillsberg takes readers inside the Agency in a way that’s never been done before, paying long-overdue tribute to the survivors and thrivers, the indispensable groundbreakers, and the defiant rabble-rousers who made the choice to change their lives and, in turn, changed history.

Host or Publisher Bards Alley Bookshop