Jennifer LaChance

Jennifer LaChance serves as a Contracting Officer within the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, Office of Acquisition and Supply Chain Management (OAS PCMB), where she leads the acquisition of critical analytical and laboratory capabilities essential to safeguarding the nation’s meat, poultry, and egg supply. Her portfolio centers on securing advanced diagnostic instrumentation, high-throughput testing consumables, and data analytics platforms that enable real-time detection of biological and chemical hazards. She ensures procurement activities align with science-driven inspection mandates, applying full and open competition under FAR Part 15 to acquire technically complex, mission-critical solutions that support FSIS’s public health surveillance objectives. LaChance engages with a broad spectrum of vendors specializing in laboratory automation, molecular diagnostics, and analytical software development. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently partners with firms possessing ISO 17025 accreditation, GMP compliance, and validated analytical methodologies. Her contracting approach emphasizes technical evaluation, performance-based requirements, and rigorous vendor qualification to ensure reliability and scientific integrity in deployed systems. Her procurement pattern reflects a strong preference for full and open competition, with 100% of her awards issued without set-asides, indicating a focus on technical capability over socioeconomic classifications. This reflects the specialized nature of the services required, where only a limited pool of vendors can meet the stringent scientific and regulatory standards necessary for federal food safety applications. LaChance’s primary focus is on NAICS 561499, All Other Business Support Services, encompassing contract research, laboratory testing support, and analytical services for food safety applications. She procures turnkey solutions integrating instrumentation, reagents, data interpretation software, and validation protocols, demonstrating deep expertise in the intersection of regulatory science, laboratory operations, and federal acquisition policy.