Deborah Leonard

About

As a senior vice president and director of the Credit Risk Management Support Office, Deborah Leonard is responsible for fostering a coordinated, enterprise approach across the twelve Reserve Banks in their credit risk management activities that support providing liquidity through discount window lending and intraday credit. She also oversees shared services that include collateral data, technology, and valuation support.

Prior to taking on her current role in October 2025, Leonard was head of the New York Fed’s Chicago office, where she oversaw the Open Market Desk’s split-site resiliency strategy for critical financial market trading activities and served as a policy advisor.

Leonard began her Federal Reserve career in 1998 as a trader-analyst in the New York Fed’s Markets Group. Since then, her work has encompassed numerous operational, analytical, and leadership positions related to the design and implementation of monetary and foreign exchange policy, emergency lending, portfolio management, financial market monitoring, and banking services. She was promoted to Assistant Vice President in 2010 and to Vice President in 2014. Leonard holds a master’s degree in international economics and public policy from the Johns Hopkins University’s School for Advanced International Studies and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Duke University.