Deb Strickland

Deb L. Strickland serves as a key procurement professional within the U.S. Forest Service’s R10 Alaska Regional Office, where she manages complex acquisitions critical to sustaining federal land access and operational resilience in Alaska’s remote and ecologically sensitive regions. Her responsibilities encompass the full lifecycle of contracting for infrastructure, forestry support, and transportation services, ensuring compliance with federal regulations while advancing the agency’s mission of safe, reliable access to public lands. She routinely handles high-stakes, mission-critical contracts requiring technical expertise in civil engineering, environmental compliance, and logistics in austere environments, often coordinating with field personnel to align procurement with on-the-ground operational needs. Strickland works closely with a diverse base of contractors specializing in heavy civil construction, forestry support services, and remote-area aviation logistics. Her partnerships include firms with proven experience in Alaska’s unique conditions, such as those capable of mobilizing equipment and labor in extreme climates, navigating indigenous land rights, and adhering to stringent environmental standards. She fosters collaborative, performance-based vendor relationships that prioritize safety, sustainability, and long-term asset integrity over low-bid procurement. Her contracting patterns reflect a strong preference for open competition, with 84.6% of awards issued without set-asides. However, she actively supports small business participation, consistently allocating approximately 12.3% of contracts as total small business set-asides and reserving 1.5% each for 8(a) and service-disabled veteran-owned small businesses, demonstrating balanced socioeconomic compliance without compromising mission readiness. Strickland’s procurement focus centers on NAICS 115310 (Support Activities for Forestry), 237310 (Highway, Street, and Bridge Construction), and 237990 (Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction), reflecting her domain expertise in road and bridge infrastructure, forest access maintenance, and large-scale civil works. She also procures nonscheduled air charter services and professional technical services to enable remote operations, underscoring her command of multi-modal logistics and mission-critical support systems in Alaska’s most isolated regions.