SBA names Terri Denison acting director here

Terri L. Denison has been named acting director of the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Wisconsin District office in Milwaukee.
Denison, who started with the SBA in 1986, replaces Eric Ness, who had been serving as acting district director since last February. Ness filled in for Michael Kiser, who had resigned. Ness has resumed his position as assistant district director for economic development.
Denison’s appointment to the Milwaukee office comes as part of an SBA director candidate development program. While the assignment is temporary – Denison expects it to last from six to nine months, she would be interested in the director’s job if it were offered.
"I’d definitely be open to staying," Denison said Jan. 9 – her second day on the job. "I see a lot of creativity and innovation in Wisconsin, and I’d like to be part of that," she added.
Denison has a broad SBA background, even though her initial interests were to work for the department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). With a master’s degree in urban studies from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, she thought she could focus on economic development through work at HUD. But when a position at the SBA opened up, she applied and, as they say, the rest is history. "I thought I was settling (for a job with the SBA), but I ended up in the area I wanted to be in anyhow.
"It’s now understood that business development is a very key component of economic development," Denison said. "But that wasn’t seen as so in past years."
Her initial work with the SBA was as a presidential management intern at the agency’s Washington, D.C. office in 1987. In 1989 she moved to the SBA’s headquarters office. Over the next seven year, she held positions in minority enterprise development, field operations and the One Stop Capital Shop initiative.
She became the deputy district director of the SBA’s Indiana district office in November of 1996. That district is part of the SBA’s Chicago-based Region 5, which also includes Wisconsin.
Last fall, Denison was one of seven individuals nationwide – out of 140 applicants – selected to participate in the SBA’s District Directors Candidate Development Program.
Before coming to Milwaukee, she served as deputy director of the SBA’s office in Los Angeles, as part of the development program.
"Having worked in Indiana, I felt very comfortable coming here," said Denison, a native of Texas who grew up in Corpus Christi.
Denison, who is single, holds a bachelor’s degree in American government, from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. She enjoys theatre and the movies, and touring rural areas and small towns.