Regional Administrator Denise L. Pease, Northeast and Caribbean Region
Denise L. Pease was appointed by President Barack Obama to serve as regional administrator for the U.S. General Services Administration’s Northeast and Caribbean Region, effective Sept. 13, 2010.
As Regional Administrator, Pease oversees the federal government’s real estate portfolio, procurement of goods and services, and information technology for New York, northern New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. GSA's Northeast and Caribbean Region has about 700 employees, an annual operating budget of $1.4 billion, and a real estate portfolio that includes 72 government-owned buildings and leased space in 469 commercial buildings. The region's staff also manages a number of major projects, including the expansion of several border stations along the U.S. border with Canada; the construction of a federal courthouse in Buffalo, New York; the return of federal tenants to the World Trade Center site; and more than $480 million in projects funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
Before assuming leadership of the region, Pease served the city of New York as the assistant comptroller of commercial banking in the Office of the New York Comptroller. In this capacity, she was the comptroller's senior liaison to New York City's diverse banking community and advised him on banking, consumer, and economic development issues that affected residents and the financial services industry. Pease also represented the comptroller on the New York City Banking Commission. Pease is also a former deputy superintendent of banks for New York state, in charge of the Consumer Services Division.
Pease suffered a traumatic brain injury in an automobile accident in 1995 and underwent more than five years of extensive therapy before returning to work. Pease says she realizes she is not alone in living with a disability. To this end, she has worked with a number of organizations that advocate for people with disabilities. She is on the board of directors of the Epilepsy Foundation of America and is chairwoman of its African American Initiative.
Pease is an alumna of Columbia University School of General Studies and holds a Bachelor of Arts in American history and biology. She was also a Charles H. Revson fellow at Columbia and a National Urban fellow at the Bernard M. Baruch Graduate School of Public Administration, and has studied executive management at the European Institute of Business Administration, Paris.
