DEA’s new Chicago boss Sheila Lyons: Will target fentanyl, an ‘awful, terrible challenge’

Newly appointed Drug Enforcement Administration Chicago special agent-in-charge Sheila Lyons. (Anthony Vazquez / Sun-Times)

When Sheila Lyons started with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration three decades ago, no women were running any of the agency’s field divisions.

Now, Lyons, newly appointed as the first female special agent-in-charge of the Chicago field division covering northern and central Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, is one of five women heading one of the DEA’s 23 field divisions.