Cathleen Christensen

Cathleen Christensen serves as a key procurement lead within the Ashley National Forest, part of the U.S. Forest Service under the Department of Agriculture, where she manages acquisitions critical to sustaining public land infrastructure and operational resilience. Her responsibilities center on planning, soliciting, and awarding contracts for the construction and renovation of essential facilities—including fire centers, water systems, restrooms, and structural assets—that support both agency operations and public safety. She ensures compliance with federal acquisition regulations while aligning procurements with the Forest Service’s mission of environmental stewardship and infrastructure modernization. Her work directly enables the agency to maintain mission-critical assets across remote, forested terrains. While specific contractor names are not publicly identified, Christensen consistently engages with qualified commercial and institutional construction firms capable of delivering complex, site-specific projects under challenging environmental conditions. Her contracting patterns reflect a preference for vendors with proven experience in federal land management environments, including those familiar with NEPA compliance, sustainable building practices, and remote logistics. She fosters collaborative, performance-based relationships with contractors who prioritize safety, durability, and long-term maintenance readiness. Christensen demonstrates a strong commitment to small business participation, with 75% of her acquisitions set aside for small businesses under FAR 19.5. Her procurement strategy prioritizes socioeconomic programs that expand opportunities for small, disadvantaged, and locally rooted firms, aligning with USDA’s broader equity goals. This consistent set-aside pattern ensures broad vendor participation while maintaining competitive rigor and technical capability. Her procurement focus is exclusively on NAICS 236220—Commercial and Institutional Building Construction—reflecting deep expertise in managing projects for public-facing and mission-critical infrastructure. She specializes in procuring turnkey construction services, including site preparation, structural upgrades, utility integration, and ADA-compliant facility enhancements, requiring technical knowledge of federal building codes, environmental constraints, and forest service design standards.