Carolyn M. Knight

Carolyn Knight serves as a Contracting Officer within the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), part of the Department of Homeland Security, where she manages mission-critical acquisitions to support national disaster preparedness, response, and recovery operations. Her portfolio centers on procuring essential goods and services that enable rapid deployment of life-sustaining resources, including temporary sheltering systems, medical supply chain enablers, and infrastructure restoration equipment. She executes contracts under FAR Part 13 and Part 14 procedures, balancing speed and compliance to meet urgent operational demands during evolving emergencies. Her work directly supports FEMA’s mandate to ensure resilient communities through agile, scalable procurement solutions. Knight maintains consistent working relationships with key vendors including FED SERVE LLC, EDGE TECHNOLOGY DISTRIBUTORS, INC., WS ACQUISITION LLC, VIDOVATION CORPORATION, and SAMSTAR LLC. These partnerships reflect a focus on durable goods suppliers, logistics specialists, and technical service providers capable of delivering mission-critical equipment under time-sensitive conditions. Her contracting approach emphasizes reliability, regulatory compliance, and supply chain agility, often engaging contractors with proven capacity for rapid fulfillment and nationwide distribution networks. While the majority of her acquisitions are conducted as open competitions (71.4%), Knight demonstrates a strong commitment to small business participation, with nearly one-third of her awards structured as Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5. She actively leverages small business capabilities without relying on specialized socioeconomic programs like 8(a) or HUBZone, favoring broad-based small business inclusion to ensure competitive, responsive vendor pools. Her procurement focus is concentrated in NAICS 311991 (perishable prepared food manufacturing), reflecting FEMA’s need for ready-to-serve meals in disaster zones, alongside significant activity in motor and generator manufacturing, commercial machinery leasing, and durable goods wholesale distribution. This technical domain expertise underscores her proficiency in sourcing mission-critical, non-medical logistical assets essential to emergency operations and infrastructure continuity.