Mark Gwyn began his law enforcement career in 1985, serving as a patrolman with the McMinnville Police Department. In 1988 he joined the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation as a Special Agent, spending his first eight years investigating some of the state’s most high-profile crimes before being promoted to Executive Officer in 1996. In 2001, Gwyn became Assistant Director of TBI in charge of the Forensic Services Division, where he supervised the state’s three crime labs; he became its director in 2004. Tennessee’s Fusion Center was constructed within TBI Headquarters under Gwyn’s supervision, housing Homeland Security among other programs such as AMBER Alert and Tennessee’s Sex Offender Registry.
Gwyn serves on the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, the board of the University of Tennessee National Forensic Academy, and local boards of directors for the Salvation Army and Second Harvest Food Bank. In 2006, Middle Tennessee State University recognized Gwyn as the Distinguished African American Alumni of the year and in 2010 he was the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award for professional achievement.