Season 2 | EP. 9 - How to leverage your Veteran-, Women-, Minority-owned certification with Laurie

04/01/22 • 51 min

Laurie Sayles is author, change agent, thought leader, and President & CEO of Civility Management Solutions (CivilityMS), a professional consulting services firm working within the Government and Commercial space. CivilityMS is a certified Small Business Administration 8(a), Women-Owned, and verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business located in Greenbelt, MD.

Laurie has become an outspoken advocate for Veteran’s as she has served on four Small Business Committee Hearings in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives regarding Veteran Entrepreneurship Training, SBA Reauthorization, and parity within the statuses. Along with company being awarded Washington Business Journal “2020 Veterans in Business” award; 2019 Maryland Women Veteran Entrepreneur of the Year and VIB Network’s “Above and Beyond” award; 2018 CivilityMS selected as 1 of 100 Minority Businesses in the Maryland, DC, and Virginia area, and “Compassionate Business Leader” due to her advocacy on behalf of Veterans business owners.

CivilityMS participated in many pilot programs: Department of Veteran Affairs, OSBDU program for Women Service-Disabled Veterans “VetBizLady”; BowieBic 8(a) accelerator program for SBA certified 8(a) programs in Prince George’s County, MD; Baltimore, MD Cohort 1 Goldman Sach’s 10,000 Small Business Program with Babson Entrepreneurship Training at Johns Hopkins University.

CivilityMS has received numerous awards during the past seven years of being established, and a repeat on Inc 5000 list for 2020 and 2021. Laurie received her BS in Social Science and a Minor in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship, along with a Business Project Management Certification from University of Maryland University College (UMUC) and has been accepted in UMGC Graduates Program and plans to return for MBA.

Her advocacy work also includes Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), which fights for policy changes for Women Owned Businesses. Lastly, Laurie is an author of her journey of moving through tough challenges, “As My Leaders Go ... So Do I,” which has promoted women conferences for empowerment to survive and operates through the nonprofit R3 (Recognize, Repair and Repeat).

Follow CivilityMS on Instagram for all tips and gems about her experience in #GovCon: https://www.instagram.com/civilityms/

Learn more about Civility Management Solutions and the work they do: https://civilityms.com/

Follow CivilityMS on Instagram for all tips and gems about her experience in #GovCon: https://www.instagram.com/civilityms/

Learn more about Civility Management Solutions and the work they do: https://civilityms.com/

Previous Episode

Season 2 | EP. 8 - Working with Department of Homeland Security for Small Businesses with Darlene Bullock

E. Darlene Bullock serves as the Director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU). Ms. Bullock has over 27 years of experience in procurement, federal assistance, and acquisitions management. Before joining the OSDBU in January 2011, Ms. Bullock was a Division Director and Contracting Officer in the DHS, Office of Procurement Operations (OPO). OPO is one of the largest procurement divisions in DHS obligating about $4 - 4.5 billion a year. Her division was responsible for supporting the Office of the Secretary and other high-visibility offices at DHS Headquarters.

Ms. Bullock oversaw and managed the award process of the first DHS-wide Program Management, Administrative, Clerical, and Technical Services (PACTS) Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Contracts which were set-aside for Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSBs). PACTS had an estimated value at $1.5 billion. The award of PACTS enabled DHS to meet and exceed the 3 percent SDVOSB goal for the first time in Fiscal Year 2010.

Ms. Bullock has held leadership positions at several Federal and local agencies including the Department of Homeland Security Headquarters, U.S. Agency for International Development, U. S. Department of Commerce, District of Columbia Government, and the U.S. Army. Ms. Bullock began her acquisition career with the U.S. Army successfully completing the Department of Defense contract specialist intern program.

She is a Certified Federal Contract Manager (CFCM) with the National Contract Management Association (NCMA) and maintains her FAC-C Level III Certification in Contracting. She has completed various Federal Executive leadership courses throughout her career. She has an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Business and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park and a MBA in International Management from Southeastern University.

Doing Business with DHS https://www.dhs.gov/topics/do-business-dhs

Business Opportunities at DHS https://www.dhs.gov/business-opportunities

For questions, email [email protected]

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Season 2 | EP. 10 - Writing Winning Proposals for Government Contracts with Caryn Kent Dean

Caryn Kent Dean, MLIS, CP APMP, CEO of Once Upon an RFP, founded Once Upon an RFP in 2018 after more than 20 years as a Proposal Professional. She and her team consistently create order from chaos, working with B2B and B2Governemnt businesses to stabilize and grow.

Caryn is passionate about connecting other professionals and businesses with opportunity, which has led to the development of new offerings in the form of RFP Bootcamp and SMB Toolkit.

Follow Once Upon an RFP on Instagram for all tips and gems about her experience in #GovCon: @onceuponanrfp

Learn more about Once Upon an RFPs and the work they do: https://onceuponanrfp.com/