Edna Wells Handy was appointed by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as Commissioner of the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) to play an integral role in his efforts to make government more efficient and cost effective. By consolidating and sharing essential City operations, Commissioner Handy and her team are ensuring that City agencies provide the best possible services to the public.  DCAS provides critical support to agencies in Human Capital/EEO and Diversity for over 150,000 city employees and 80 agencies; real estate portfolio and facilities management of over 37 million sqft of owned and leased office space; fleet operations and management of 27,000 vehicles; purchasing of over $1 billion dollars in goods and services; and oversight of the City’s $800 million energy budget and conservation measures.

After graduation from Georgetown University Law Center, Edna Wells Handy began her legal career as Federal District Court Law Clerk to Honorable Lawrence W. Pierce (retired, U.S. Court of Appeals, 2^nd Cir).  From there her career crisscrossed between academia and service in government and public interest.  Her first teaching position was that of instructor at her alma mater’s law school (NYU), followed by teaching assignments at CUNY Law School and CUNY College of Technology, New York and Hofstra law schools, as well as trial advocacy training programs at Harvard, St. John’s, and Cardozo law schools.

Ms. Wells Handy began her career in law enforcement as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, followed by positions as Bureau Chief at the Kings County District Attorney’s Office and Deputy Attorney General with the NYS Attorney General’s Office. Other government positions included Deputy Executive Director for Human Resources at the City’s Department of Education and General Counsel and Vice President for Legal Affairs of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. 

Her public interest positions include that of General Counsel for the New York State Conference of NAACP Branches and the St. Paul Community Baptist Church of Brooklyn; and service as the interim executive director of Hale House.  There, she and her team saved the venerable Harlem-based non-profit from closure.

Edna Wells Handy is the widow of the late Michael J. Handy, former 10-year Director of the Mayor’s Office of Veterans’ Affairs for NYC.  She and her four daughters are the founders of the “Mike Handy Veterans Foundation and Fund,” a non-profit dedicated to ensuring rights, benefits and public recognition for veterans of all eras and their families.