Central Office - Program Review Division

VaNessa P. Adams
Sr. Deputy Assistant Director,
Program Review Division


VaNessa Patten Adams has been with the Federal Bureau of Prisons since May 1978. She has held positions of increasing responsibility in the agency beginning as Correctional Officer at FCI La Tuna, TX; Teacher at FCI Butner, NC and USP Lewisburg, PA; Assistant Principal at FCI Marianna, FL; Principal at FCI Three Rivers, TX; and Evaluation Specialist for the Program Review Division (PRD) in Central Office. She served as Executive Assistant of the Information, Policy, and Public Affairs Division in Central Office, then as Executive Assistant of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office. In 2000, Ms. Adams joined the leadership team of the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, NC as Associate Warden. In 2003, she was promoted to Warden at the Federal Prison Camp in Alderson, WV; and later served in that same capacity at the Federal Correctional Complex in Petersburg, VA. She became Senior Deputy Assistant Director of PRD on May 27, 2007.

Ms. Adams received a B.A. degree in Political Science from Gettysburg College in Gettysburg, PA, and a M.Ed. in Correctional Special Education and Behavioral Disorders from Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, NC. She has received many agency awards for her professional achievements and also received the Attorney Generals Mary C. Lawson Lifetime Service Award. Ms. Adams joined the Senior Executive Service in February 2005.

Ms. Adams is a member of the American Correctional Association, Association of Women Executives in Corrections, and National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice.