Carol Dingess

Carol Dingess serves as a key procurement professional within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, supporting mission-critical acquisitions that safeguard national agricultural biosecurity. She manages a diverse portfolio of contracts spanning scientific instrumentation, facility maintenance, and specialized logistical services essential to APHIS’s surveillance and containment operations. Her work directly enables the agency’s ability to detect, diagnose, and respond to invasive pests and animal diseases through timely procurement of laboratory equipment, field support services, and biocontainment infrastructure. Dingess operates within a framework that prioritizes technical precision and regulatory compliance, ensuring all acquisitions align with federal biosafety and agricultural protection standards. She maintains established relationships with a select group of contractors including Aerospace & Commercial Technologies, LLC, Thorobred Aviation Maintenance, Inc., Trace First Limited, and AR6 Construction & Engineering, LLC, reflecting a preference for specialized vendors capable of delivering high-integrity technical and operational support. Her contracting patterns indicate consistent collaboration with firms possessing niche expertise in aviation logistics, analytical instrumentation, and facility retrofitting for biosecure environments, suggesting a reliance on vendors with proven experience in sensitive government environments. Dingess demonstrates a strong commitment to small business participation, with nearly half of her acquisitions structured as total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5. She also routinely utilizes no-set-aside procurements, indicating flexibility to source from larger firms when technical requirements demand specialized capabilities. Smaller but consistent allocations to Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Businesses (EDWOSB) and HUBZone firms reflect a deliberate effort to broaden socioeconomic inclusion in mission-critical supply chains. Her primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 325320 (agricultural chemical manufacturing), 561720 (janitorial services for biosecure facilities), 334516 (analytical lab instrumentation), and 311999 (specialized food manufacturing equipment), underscoring deep technical alignment with APHIS’s diagnostic, containment, and field response missions. She consistently procures precision instruments, decontamination systems, and infrastructure upgrades critical to maintaining national agricultural health.