Karen Cusson

Karen Cusson serves as a secondary procurement liaison within the Defense Health Agency HCD West, supporting the acquisition and sustainment of mission-critical medical equipment and clinical support systems essential to military readiness across the Indo-Pacific region. She facilitates the procurement lifecycle for laboratory, surgical, and electromedical systems, ensuring compliance with Defense Department standards and operational timelines. Her role involves coordinating contract execution, vendor evaluation, and technical requirement validation to maintain the integrity of field-deployable diagnostic and treatment capabilities. Cusson’s work directly enables the agency’s mission to sustain uninterrupted access to advanced medical technologies in austere and high-tempo environments. She maintains consistent working relationships with key contractors including HealthStream Inc., Seneca Federal Solutions, LLC, AMD International Technologies LLC, Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, and A.S.Y. Co., Ltd., spanning clinical training, logistics, equipment repair, and pharmaceutical supply chains. These partnerships reflect a blend of commercial off-the-shelf procurement and specialized technical services, with an emphasis on vendors capable of supporting rapid deployment, calibration, and field maintenance of complex electromedical systems. Her contracting patterns prioritize reliability, regulatory compliance, and rapid response capabilities over cost alone. Cusson’s acquisition portfolio demonstrates a strong preference for open competition, with 77.3% of awards issued without set-aside restrictions. Small business participation is present but limited, with total small business set-asides accounting for 13.6% and women-owned small business and local area set-asides each representing 4.5%. This reflects a mission-driven focus on capability over socioeconomic targeting, though she actively engages qualified small businesses when their technical expertise aligns with operational needs. Her primary procurement focus centers on NAICS 811210 for electronic and precision equipment repair and maintenance, followed by 334516 for analytical laboratory instrument manufacturing and 541519 for other computer-related services. She specializes in acquiring diagnostic instrumentation, medical device maintenance contracts, and data management systems critical to clinical operations, demonstrating deep technical familiarity with electromedical lifecycle support and laboratory automation systems.