Glenda Villareal Garcia, JD, began her professional journey at Stony Brook University, where she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and was inducted into The Phi Beta Kappa Society. Going on to join the School of Law at the University of Miami in Florida, she achieved a Doctor of Jurisprudence in 2006 and was licensed to practice law by the New York State Bar that same year. In 2007, she became a legal associate with Zhang & Associates, P.C. before serving as an associate at Quirk & Bakalor, P.C. from 2007 to 2009. Ms. Villareal Garcia subsequently held the position of assistant general counsel for the New York City Employees’ Retirement System from 2009 to 2015 and agency counsel for the office of payroll administration within the New York Financial Informational Services Agency from 2015 to 2018.
Since 2018, Ms. Villareal Garcia has excelled as a deputy commissioner with the New York City Department of Veterans’ Services, bringing with her years of experience in labor and employment, contracts, data security and privacy, conflicts of interest, and more. She also spent time as employment counsel from 2018 to 2019 and has been general counsel since 2019. In the last few years, she has seen considerable recognition within the agency for the counseling and advising services she provides to the leadership team. With the mindset of always saying “yes” to opportunities, she accepted the role of agency chief contracting officer in 2020. In her various roles, Ms. Villareal Garcia now oversees administration, human resources, operations, legal, budget, information technology and community services leadership teams to help veterans, active service members and their families.
Noting that it is fairly rare to see an attorney in her position, wearing the dual hats of lawyer and executive, Ms. Villareal Garcia has made a name for herself for her determination and self-motivation throughout her career. She sought continued career growth as she moved from working with a small immigration firm to a mid-sized insurance defense firm to, finally, government work. Since the beginning of her professional journey, she has grown in ways she never could have imagined and remains excited by the vast number of current and future opportunities before her. As she looks toward the future, she hopes to set out on her own and establish herself as an independent legal practitioner. In order to keep abreast of new developments in her field, Ms. Villareal Garcia maintains affiliation with several professional organizations, including the New York State Bar Association, the American Bar Association and The Phi Beta Kappa Society.
Attributing much of her success to pushing forward, even when she has doubts, Ms. Villareal Garcia sees every day as an opportunity to create something new. She feels honored to have received recognition from her commissioner, senior leadership and city hall. Furthermore, her success as an Asian American of Filipino descent has been an incredible achievement and source of pride, particularly in that she continued to excel even during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when things were very difficult and uncertain. For her excellence, Ms. Villareal Garcia was inducted into the prestigious Marquis Who’s Who biographical registry and named among Who’s Who of Professional Women. The first attorney in her family, Ms. Villareal Garcia was encouraged on her education journey by her mother, who holds a master’s degree. Her family also includes her two siblings, a brother and a sister, and her 9-year-old son, Maxwell. When she isn’t working, Ms. Villareal Garcia enjoys spending her free time with her family, her son in particular.