Alejandra Quinonez

Maria A. Quinonez serves as an Acquisition Specialist with USAID/El Salvador, where she plays a pivotal role in executing the agency’s mission to strengthen democratic governance, institutional capacity, and rule of law through strategic procurement of technical advisory services. She manages the full lifecycle of acquisitions—from needs assessment and market research to contract award and closeout—ensuring alignment with U.S. foreign assistance objectives and federal acquisition regulations. Her portfolio primarily consists of professional, scientific, and technical services contracts designed to support policy reform, public sector modernization, and global health security initiatives in partnership with El Salvadoran institutions. Maria works with a diverse range of international and local consultants, think tanks, and professional service firms that provide expert advisory support in governance, human rights, migration management, and institutional development. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages firms with demonstrated expertise in public administration reform, legal capacity building, and technical assistance delivery. Her procurement approach emphasizes competitive bidding, transparency, and value-driven outcomes over vendor loyalty, fostering a dynamic marketplace of qualified service providers. Maria’s contracting patterns reflect a strong preference for open, non-set-aside competitions, with 100% of her acquisitions conducted under unrestricted solicitations. This approach prioritizes technical merit and global expertise over socioeconomic set-asides, aligning with USAID’s need for high-caliber, mission-critical advisory services that often require specialized international experience not always available within small business pools. Her primary procurement focus is NAICS 541990—All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services—encompassing policy analysis, institutional diagnostics, training design, and technical advisory engagements. She specializes in acquiring services that support constitutional reform, judicial modernization, anti-corruption initiatives, and migration governance, requiring deep domain knowledge in Latin American public institutions and U.S. foreign assistance frameworks.