Dralene V. Ervin

Darlene Ervin serves as a Contracting Officer with Washington Headquarters Services (WHS), a critical support arm of the Department of Defense responsible for enterprise-wide administrative and operational services. In this role, she manages the full lifecycle of procurements for mission-enabling solutions, ensuring compliance with FAR and DoD acquisition regulations. Her portfolio primarily encompasses professional services related to event management, administrative consulting, and technical support, aligning with WHS’s mission to modernize institutional systems and optimize defense enterprise functions. She exercises broad discretionary authority in awarding contracts through competitive and non-competitive mechanisms, emphasizing efficiency, transparency, and mission alignment. Ervin maintains established relationships with a core group of vendors including CLARITY INNOVATIONS LLC, CYNERGY PROFESSIONAL SYSTEMS LLC, SIGNATURE RENOVATIONS LLC, AMD INTERNATIONAL TECHNOLOGIES LLC, and GUIDEHOUSE INC. These partnerships reflect a consistent reliance on firms capable of delivering high-quality, scalable professional services—particularly in event coordination, management consulting, and translation support. Her contracting approach emphasizes performance-based outcomes and long-term vendor reliability, fostering collaborative relationships built on compliance, accountability, and consistent delivery. While the majority of her acquisitions are conducted as unrestricted procurements (64.1%), Ervin demonstrates a strong commitment to small business participation, with 35.9% of awards structured as Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5. She actively leverages small business capabilities without relying on specialized socioeconomic set-asides such as 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB, indicating a preference for broad-based small business engagement across general service categories. Her procurement focus is heavily concentrated in NAICS 561920 (Convention and Trade Show Organizers), reflecting WHS’s need to support large-scale defense conferences and stakeholder engagements. Secondary areas include translation and interpretation services (541930), hotel and lodging support (721110), and administrative management consulting (541611), underscoring her expertise in procuring complex, multi-faceted service solutions that sustain the DoD’s institutional infrastructure.