Nancy Gleason Groenwegen was born on October 7, 1957, the third of four children born to Robert and Beverly Knobel Gleason. She graduated from Hudson Falls High School in 1975. In 1979, she graduated from SUNY Albany’s Rockefeller College with a BS degree in political science and went on to receive her JD from Boston University School of Law.
Nancy has developed an expertise in public-sector employment and labor law in more than two decades of work in or near State government. She has had the privilege of working for three governors and three attorneys general. In 2007, she was nominated by Governor Eliot Spitzer and confirmed by the New York State Senate to serve as the President of the New York State Civil Service Commission and Commissioner of the New York State Department of Civil Service.
As Commissioner, Nancy oversees an agency that serves as the central human resources agency for executive branch agencies of state government employing nearly 170,000 people. The agency also provides technical services to 97 municipal civil service agencies, which cover approximately 390,000 local government employees. The Civil Service Department’s Employee Benefits Division administers the New York State Health Insurance Program, which provides benefits to more than 1 million current and retired state and local government employees and their dependents.
Prior to her appointment as commissioner, Nancy held a variety of positions in the administration of Governor Mario M. Cuomo. She was assistant counsel in the Governor’s Office of Employee Relations, then assistant counsel to the governor himself for labor, public pension and economic development matters. She later served as deputy commissioner and general counsel to the Departments of Civil Service and Labor. She also served as an assistant attorney general in the New York State Department of Law. In addition to her service in State government, Nancy was the counsel for policy and employee relations services at the New York State School Boards Association.
Nancy married Paul Groenwegen in 1988. They have one son, Philip, born in 1995.