Norman Dong
FRPA President As a Partner at FD Stonewater, Norman plays a leading role within the firm’s third-party advisory and principal development platforms with a primary focus on federal, state and local government real estate transactions. As the former Commissioner of the GSA Public Buildings Service, Mr. Dong managed the nationwide asset management, design, construction, leasing, building management and disposal of approximately 372 million square feet of government-owned and leased space. In addition, Mr. Dong served as Acting Controller at Office of Management and Budget, where he was responsible for Federal real property management, and as Chief Financial Officer of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In addition to his Federal experience, Mr. Dong has held leadership positions at the state and local levels of government, including Deputy Mayor for Operations and City Administrator for the District of Columbia. He holds a Bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a Master’s degree from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. |
Kristie Bissell
FRPA Vice President Kristie Bissell is a Lead Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton with over 20 years of government consulting experience. Throughout her career, Kristie has served as project lead and supported a wide variety of federal real estate and information technology related projects. She is currently supporting federal real estate activities conducting market research, identifying and evaluating real estate alternatives, and analyzing the impact of real estate decisions. Her experience includes financial analysis, life cycle cost estimates, market research, policy development and analysis, business case analysis, and project management. Kristie has been actively engaged in FRPA for over 8 years and is currently serving as the Association’s Vice President. Kristie received her Bachelor’s of Business Administration and her MBA from James Madison University. |
Arthur Russell
FRPA Treasurer Art currently serves as Managing Director for the Jones Lang LaSalle Government Investor Services (GIS) Practice Group. His role is to serve as the GSA Strategic Advisor for the practice group. The 9-member team provides landlord brokerage services on a national platform that focuses on attracting federal and local government occupiers of commercial real estate to Institutional owned assets. Prior to joining JLL, Art served as a Senior Lease Contract Specialist for the General Services Administration (GSA), completing 1.5 million square feet of client-agency leases. Concurrently, he served as the managing partner for the Russell Advisory Group a Business Development Company (“BDC”)/Sovereign Fund that invested equity and debt in private and public companies. Previously as a co-founding principal of Capital CREAG, a corporate real estate advisory firm. His efforts were directly responsible for the completion of approximately 20 million square feet of federal lease transactions. He served as the lead in strategic partnerships with GSA, Guggenheim Partners, Starbucks, among others. In his earlier career, he served as a Senior Financial Analyst with Jones Lang LaSalle providing day-to-day investment management guidance for pension and commingled funds for office portfolios valued at over $1 billion. Finally, he was a senior financial analyst for Public Financial Management providing financial modeling for public arenas including, but not limited to: Camden Yards, Tampa Authority, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Jacobs Field and Quicken Loans Arena. |
Sarah Burns Williams
FRPA Secretary Sarah Burns Williams is a Manager at Deloitte Consulting in the Real Estate Strategy & Sustainability offering with over 14 years of real estate experience. Throughout her career, Sarah has led a wide variety of public and private real estate strategy projects, managing teams both domestically and abroad. Her business acumen spans client service management, portfolio strategy, business process improvement, budgeting, market research, and data analysis. Committed to women’s initiatives in the industry, Ms. Burns Williams is a founding member of Deloitte’s Women in Infrastructure and Real Estate initiative. Sarah is also a former participant in the prestigious Deloitte Real Estate Fellowship Program, focused on development the next generation of leadership within the consulting industry. Sarah has been actively engaged with FRPA for over 5 years as the Lead of the Communications Team and is currently serving as the Association’s Secretary. Sarah received her Bachelors of Arts in Economics at Wofford College and her Masters of Real Estate from Georgetown University. |
Adam Bodner
Adam Bodner enjoyed a 32-year career in federal Real Property Management; leading, managing, and participating in virtually every possible type of federal real estate development and tenant representation activity. Along the way he developed a comprehensive understanding of federal real estate policies and practices, including related subjects such as federal budgeting and appropriations, business case development and cost/benefit analyses. Currently, Mr. Bodner has a growing roster of clients including building owners and developers, federal agencies, and a variety of companies seeking to support the needs of the Federal Government. Since 2020, Adam has been proud to be a board member of the Federal Real Property Association. Prior to leaving public service, Mr. Bodner was the Executive Director of the Public Buildings Reform Board for the first two and a half years of its existence; responsible for standing up the Board and successfully implementing its statutory mandate to identify opportunities for the Government to reduce its inventory of civilian real property and reduce costs to the Government. For ten years Mr. Bodner directed the Office of Real Property Management at the U.S. Department of State. As the primary tenant representative for the Department’s domestic real estate portfolio (consisting of approximately 9 million square feet of space in 140 locations nationwide), Mr. Bodner led all aspects of the Department’s domestic real estate program, from strategic planning and tenant housing plans to land acquisition, leasing, design, new construction, and major consolidations and relocations. Adam received a bachelor’s degree from Brandeis University in 1987 and a Master’s degree in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of Virginia in 1994. He and his wife Debra have lived and raised their family in the People’s Republic of Takoma Park, MD since 1996. |
Stuart Burns
Stuart serves as Executive Vice President – Government Relations for Easterly Government Properties. He has over 35 years of government and private sector experience, with 19 years focused on federal government real estate management. Prior to joining the Company in February 2023, Mr. Burns was the Assistant Commissioner for Portfolio Management and Customer Engagement in the GSA’s Public Buildings Service (PBS). In this role, he was responsible for managing a portfolio of over 370 million square feet, including over 8,700 owned and leased assets and more than 560 historic properties. He also was responsible for customer relationship management for the 70+ government agencies that PBS served. From 2003 to 2015, Stuart worked for the Internal Revenue Service in increasing levels of responsibility. In his final position there, he served as the Acting Deputy Commissioner for Operations Support, overseeing the integration of real estate, technology, shared services, procurement, as well as all finance and human resource needs for the Internal Revenue Service. He earned his bachelor’s degree in environmental science from University of Virginia. |
Keith Cunningham
Keith B. Cunningham is an Assistant Director of physical infrastructure issues at the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative and audit arm of the U.S. Congress. Mr. Cunningham has developed a broad expertise in real property policy and management issues during his 25 years at GAO—having led the work for more than 40 GAO reports and testimony statements. Mr. Cunningham’s recent work on federal real property includes reports on various issues related to property ownership, realignment, leasing, disposal, and financing. Prior to government service, Mr. Cunningham directed research on worldwide military base closure and reuse efforts for the Bonn International Center for Conversion in Germany and Business Executives for National Security. Mr. Cunningham holds a Masters of Policy Studies from Johns Hopkins University and a BS in Social Science from Miami University, Ohio. |
Tom Chaleki
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Gordon Griffin
Gordon Griffin is a federal real estate attorney in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office. Gordon represents building owners, real estate developers, real estate investment trusts (REITs) and asset managers nationwide in all aspects of General Services Administration (GSA) lease procurement and negotiation, lease administration and litigation of lease disputes. Gordon is the co-author of the 2016 Federal Government Real Estate Leasing guide published by LexisNexis. Gordon's work covers a variety of aspects of federal real estate, including: Counseling real estate clients through the federal procurement process, including bid protests of overly restrictive or unfair RLP provisions at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the U.S. Court of Federal Claims; assisting clients in the federal claims process, and litigating federal lease disputes under the Contract Disputes Act at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, as well as the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals and Civilian Board of Contract Appeals; and counseling real estate clients through the purchase and sale of properties with government tenants. |
Melanie Gilbert
GSA Liaison In October 2022, Melanie Gilbert began her service at the General Services Administration, Public Buildings Service, as the Regional Commissioner for the National Capital Region. She is responsible for GSA’s largest and most challenging real estate portfolio of 93 million rentable square feet and inventory of over 600 government-owned and leased facilities with a revenue of $2.8 billion. With a staff of over 1,000 employees, Melanie’s immediate priority is the Executive Branch’s post-pandemic return to facilities and NCR’s future real estate portfolio strategy. Prior to joining GSA, Melanie spent 30 years at the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts and for the last 11 years was the Chief of the Facilities and Security Office. She was the senior executive responsible for the Federal Judiciary’s facilities, security, and emergency preparedness programs and portfolio. In that role she was the senior executive responsible for an almost $2 billion dollar budget for facilities and security throughout the United States in over 880 primary courthouses, federal buildings, and leases. She was Chair of the Judiciary’s COVID-19 Task Force that led the Federal Court’s operational response to the pandemic. She was also responsible for the multi-million dollar operation of the Thurgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building in Washington, DC. during her tenure with the courts. Melanie is a cum laude graduate of New York Law School, and holds a B.A. from Indiana University in Political Science and Theater. |
Dan Mathews
After 25 years of federal service in Congress and the executive branch, Dan founded Mathews Associates LLC in 2021 as a strategic consulting and business development firm. He helps his clients navigate the highest levels of Washington and the complex world of federal real estate and government procurements to expand their revenue, identify new partners and enter new markets. Major federal projects and leases require approval from a variety of decision-makers within the General Services Administration (GSA), Office of Management and Budget, and Congress. Mathews Associates LLC helps guide its clients through this process and shape the decisions for their benefit. As the Head of Federal Sales at WeWork he secured a spot on the federal government’s Flexible Coworking Services contract and several other agency acquisitions. Mathews was Commissioner of GSA’s Public Buildings Service from August of 2017 to January of 2021. Prior to joining GSA, Mathews served as the staff director of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management. |
Michael Saunders
Michael Saunders serves as Director, Real Estate, Logistics, and Operations Support Portfolio for Program Support Center (PSC), a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In this position, he oversees multiple support services provided to the department and other federal agencies including building operations; real property management; supply chain management; transportation; mail and publishing, physical security and emergency management; and intake, suitability and badging services. He also represents HHS as the Senior Real Property Officers (SRPO) and Agency Senior Travel Official. Mr. Saunders joined PSC in October 2016. Prior to HHS he served for over 26 years in the U.S. Air Force in various command roles, base-level civil engineer positions, and staff tours including at the Pentagon. He retired in the rank of Colonel after serving as Director of Installations for the U.S. Air Force Central Command. His is the recipient of the Legion of Merit and four Bronze Star Medals. Mr. Saunders holds a bachelor's degree in civil engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy and master's degrees from the University of South Florida, the Air Command and Staff College and the National Defense University. |
Lisle Hannah
Lisle Hannah is the Director for the Office of Facilities and Environmental Quality (OFEQ) at the U.S. Department of Commerce. She oversees environmental and energy policy, real property policy, fleet management and property policy as well as building operations and the renovation of the Commerce Headquarters building. She is a strategic leader with over 25 years of experience overseeing key administrative service functions. She advises on facilities and real property issues, asset management, administrative services and environmental issues. Prior to working at Commerce, Ms. Hannah was the Director of Facilities for the Corporation for National and Community Service (AmeriCorps) and served as the Director of the Office of Administrative Services at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In addition to her federal experience, Ms. Hannah worked as a project manager at several architectural firms and at T. Rowe Price. |
Julia Tritz
Julia Tritz is the Director of the Business Operations Center at the U.S. Department of Labor where her portfolio includes real and personal property, fleet management, facilities operations and maintenance, worker safety and health, and environment and sustainability. She is a tenacious and flexible leader with over a decade of experience in formulating and executing strategic and operational planning. She has been with the Department of Labor for over 25 years, working in various program areas before joining the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management in 2019. Worker protections and work environments are a thread throughout her career and she has dedicated her professional life to creating workplaces that are safe, mission focused and worker-centered. She is a graduate of Boston University where she received her BA magna cum laude in Art History and she complete the Senior Executive Fellows program at the Harvard Kennedy School. |
Natalie Newman
Natalie Newman is a Marketing Coordinator supporting FD Stonewater's Development, Brokerage, and Investment platform. She manages the firm’s digital marketing efforts, assists internal communications, and provides graphic design materials for pursuits. Natalie earned her B.B.A in Marketing with a concentration in Digital Marketing from James Madison University. |
Elsa Wilson
Elsa Wilson is a Senior Research Analyst at JLL focusing on government and education research. She supports the firm’s Public Institutions group that specializes in federal government work, as well as state and local government and education. Prior to this, she spent over a year as the DC Research Analyst specializing in the DC office market. Her career began at JLL in July 2020 as an intern for the Government Investor Services team. Elsa earned her B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Loyola Marymount University. |