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James R. Ives

Deputy Inspector General for Overseas Contingency Operations

Mr. James R. Ives currently serves as the Deputy Inspector General for Overseas Contingency Operations (DIG OCO).  In this capacity, Mr. Ives is responsible for developing and executing strategic oversight plans when the DoD IG is designated as Lead OIG for an overseas contingency operation (OCO) consistent with Section 8L of the Inspector General Act of 1978.  DoD IG is currently designated as Lead OIG for two OCOs: Operation Inherent Resolve and Operation Freedom's Sentinel.

Mr. Ives has 29 years of combined oversight and law enforcement experience.  Prior to his current assignment, he served as Assistant Inspector General for Investigations (AIGI) at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Office of Inspector General, where he oversaw a cadre of special agents, investigative auditors, technical investigators, and support personnel responsible for conducting criminal investigations involving NASA operations.  Before joining NASA OIG in 2015, he served with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (the criminal investigative arm of DoD IG) for 22 years.  Throughout his tenure, he held numerous leadership positions at DoD IG, to include Criminal Intelligence Program Manager, Assistant Deputy Director for National Security, Deputy Director of the Investigative Operations Directorate, Special Agent-in-Charge of the DCIS’s Mid-Atlantic Field Office, Acting Principal Director of DoD IG's Office of Professional Responsibility, Deputy Director of DCIS, Acting Deputy Inspector General for Intelligence and Special Program Assessments, and Assistant Inspector General for Investigations.  Prior to entering the management ranks at DoD IG, Mr. Ives served as a special agent assigned to DCIS’s Boston Resident Agency where he conducted criminal investigations from 1994 through 2001 and served as DCIS’s full-time representative to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force from 2001 through 2004.  Upon departing DoD IG in 2015, he received the organization's Distinguished Career Achievement Award.  

From January 2019 through April 2019, Mr. Ives served on a detail assignment as Acting Inspector General of the U.S. Government Publishing Office.  In 2020, the Association of Inspectors General designated him as a Certified Inspector General.  

Mr. Ives is a 2005 graduate of Georgetown University, where he earned a Master of Public Policy degree, and a 1992 graduate of State University of New York, College at Brockport, where he graduated summa cum laude with a B.S. in Criminal Justice and a minor in Psychology.  He is a 2017 graduate of Harvard University’s Senior Executives Fellows program.  He is also an adjunct professorial lecturer at American University, and an adjunct professor at University of Maryland’s Global Campus.