Carlina Smith

Carlina Smith serves as a key procurement professional within the Contracts and Acquisitions Management unit of the Department of Education, where she oversees the strategic acquisition of professional services critical to advancing postsecondary education policy and federal student aid infrastructure. Her work centers on securing expert research, data analytics, and evaluation services that inform evidence-based decision-making and regulatory compliance. She manages a portfolio of complex service contracts, primarily focused on social science research and institutional capacity building, ensuring alignment with federal education priorities and statutory requirements under the Higher Education Act. Smith maintains a consistent working relationship with LPE-STRATEGIES LLC, a primary contractor delivering high-impact research and policy analysis services. Her contracting patterns reflect a preference for established, non-set-aside vendors with proven expertise in educational research and data systems, indicating a focus on technical capability and institutional knowledge over socioeconomic preferences. The partnership with LPE-STRATEGIES LLC underscores a reliance on specialized firms capable of delivering rigorous, federally compliant evaluations of education programs and student outcomes. Her procurement activity is entirely non-set-aside, with no reliance on 8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, or other socioeconomic programs, reflecting a mission-driven emphasis on subject matter expertise and delivery reliability. This approach prioritizes technical merit and past performance over socioeconomic targeting, consistent with the agency’s need for high-stakes, mission-critical services. The overwhelming majority of her acquisitions fall under NAICS 541720—Research and Development in the Social Sciences and Humanities—indicating deep specialization in educational policy analysis, longitudinal data studies, and program evaluation. A smaller portion of activity under NAICS 512199 suggests occasional procurement of multimedia communication products to disseminate research findings. Her domain expertise lies in the intersection of education policy, federal data systems, and behavioral research methodologies.