Lahonda Carter-Graves

Lahonda Carter-Graves serves as a Contract Specialist at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, supporting the Department of the Navy’s mission to sustain operational medical readiness through strategic procurement of advanced clinical and diagnostic equipment. She manages the full lifecycle of acquisitions for precision surgical instruments, electromedical devices, laboratory analyzers, and specialized diagnostic supplies, ensuring compliance with federal acquisition regulations and naval medical standards. Her work directly enables the center’s capacity to deliver high-acuity care to active-duty personnel, veterans, and their families, with a focus on mission-critical, technologically advanced healthcare systems. Carter-Graves cultivates partnerships with a diverse array of vendors, including manufacturers of analytical laboratory instrumentation and providers of specialized medical maintenance and training services. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she consistently engages with firms capable of meeting stringent DoD technical specifications and just-in-time delivery requirements. Her contracting approach emphasizes vendor reliability, technical support capabilities, and adherence to military-grade quality controls, fostering long-term relationships with suppliers who can sustain complex medical equipment over extended operational lifecycles. Her procurement patterns reflect a strong commitment to small business participation, with 26.5% of awards designated as total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5. Though the majority of acquisitions remain open to all competitors, she actively promotes opportunities for small businesses with relevant technical expertise, particularly those certified in manufacturing or service categories aligned with medical instrumentation and biomedical support. Her primary NAICS focus is on 811219 (Medical and Diagnostic Laboratory Services), reflecting her central role in procuring laboratory testing infrastructure and associated consumables. She also frequently sources from 334516 (Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing) and 611430 (Professional and Management Development Training), demonstrating deep expertise in biomedical equipment acquisition and workforce development for clinical technicians. Her domain knowledge spans medical device compliance, calibration standards, and lifecycle management of diagnostic systems critical to naval healthcare operations.