Arkansas ASCD

Jessica Franklin entered on duty with the FBI in May of 2020 and serves as the Community Outreach Specialist for the Little Rock Field Office. As the Community Outreach Specialist, Jessica manages all community outreach programs for the Little Rock Field Office. Additionally, Jessica is the Diversity & Inclusion Coordinator and helps build relationships between minority groups and FBI employees in Arkansas. Last, Jessica serves as the Backup Public Affairs Officer for the FBI Little Rock’s Public Affairs team. As Backup Public Affairs Officer, Jessica has published several Twitter campaigns for FBI Little Rock’s Twitter page, responds to media requests, helps coordinate media campaigns with news media, and presents to community groups and schools throughout Arkansas on key FBI initiatives.

Brenan Despain has served as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation since 1999. SA Despain began his work in Arkansas in 2013 and was assigned to work counterintelligence matters. Years later, he started an initiative in the River Valley to combat Human Trafficking and also created the Northwest Arkansas Safe Streets Task Force to combat growing violence from neighborhood based gangs. In 2019, approval was obtained to stand up a Fayetteville Office based task force to combat Human Trafficking. Since 2019 the task force has grown from working regional to state-wide cases. The task force has created a new way of addressing human trafficking, specifically sex trafficking, with greater results in charging perpetrators and intervening and providing hope for victims.