Mary Beth Wilkas Janke is a master of staying calm and level-headed in the most daunting circumstances. A former US Secret Service Agent, Mary Beth has fought in life-or-death circumstances and executed high-speed defensive maneuvers in vehicles -- all the while maintaining enough cool to get the job done.

Her new memoir, The Protector: A Woman’s Journey From the Secret Service to Guarding VIPs and Working in Some of the World’s Most Dangerous Places, tells all.

Mary Beth, now a professor of Abnormal Psychology at