Athena Straniere

Athena Straniere serves as a key procurement lead within the DSC Contracting Services Division of the National Park Service, overseeing the acquisition of engineering, architectural, and construction services critical to preserving and modernizing the nation’s park infrastructure. She manages complex contracts for the rehabilitation of historic structures, upgrades to utility systems, and the construction of visitor facilities across ecologically sensitive and remote locations. Her work ensures compliance with federal preservation standards while advancing resilience and accessibility goals, aligning closely with the NPS mission to protect cultural and natural resources for public enjoyment. Straniere maintains longstanding relationships with top-tier engineering and construction firms including AECOM Technical Services, Vanasse Hangen Brustlin, Johnson, Mirmiran & Thompson, HDR Engineering, and McKenzie Construction & Site Development. These partnerships reflect a preference for firms with proven expertise in historic preservation, civil engineering, and environmental compliance. Her contracting approach emphasizes technical proficiency, regulatory adherence, and project delivery reliability, often resulting in multi-year, performance-based agreements that require integrated design-build or design-bid-build methodologies. Her procurement strategy is overwhelmingly non-set-aside, with 90.9% of awards issued under full and open competition, reflecting the specialized nature of the work and the limited pool of qualified contractors capable of meeting the NPS’s rigorous technical and environmental standards. Nevertheless, she consistently allocates 9.1% of contracts to total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5, demonstrating a measured commitment to small business participation without compromising project integrity. Straniere’s primary focus lies in NAICS 541330 (Engineering Services) and 541310 (Architectural Services), with significant activity in 236220 (Commercial and Institutional Building Construction) and 237990 (Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction). She procures services spanning structural rehabilitation, water and wastewater system modernization, site grading, and sustainable infrastructure design, requiring deep domain expertise in historic preservation, environmental impact mitigation, and federal construction codes.