Title: Deputy finance director
Employer: Houston
Age:
As deputy finance director for Houston, Melissa Dubowski is tackling the most severe financial crisis in a generation at the nation’s fourth most populous city.
Melissa, who came to Houston in 2014 after working for New York City, leads the Finance Department's liquidity management, debt issuance, and property and sales tax forecasting and collections. She also oversees the city's $9.2 billion five-year capital plan and had a key role in developing the Houston Pension Solution that required approval of $1 billion of pension bonds in 2017. She also serves as a Trustee for the Houston Police Officers' Pension System.
“While we have had to adapt to a telecommuting platform, we have also found our work itself to be more demanding because of the economic climate and the volatility in the municipal market,” she said.
A native of Erie, Pennsylvania, Melissa earned a bachelor’s degree in biomedical engineering at Boston University with an eye toward the medical field.
At New York City's Office of Management and Budget, she oversaw the operating and capital budgets for the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Prior to that she worked for the State of Texas where she was a financial analyst evaluating state budget information and the expenditure of state tax revenue, with a focus on healthcare-related projects.
As one of the youngest executives in Mayor Sylvester Turner’s administration, Melissa’s associates describe her as “well respected, knowledgeable, conscientious, and understands the complexities of the market.”
When she has time, Melissa enjoys snowboarding and cooking, among other pursuits. She and her husband, Michael, are raising their four-year-old son, Ford.
