Lara Emmons - Branch Chief, DRIVe

Lara Emmons serves as Branch Chief within the Division of Research, Innovation, and Vaccine Equity (DRIVe) at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, where she leads strategic procurement initiatives to accelerate the development and deployment of medical countermeasures and diagnostic technologies. Her role is central to ASPR’s mission of ensuring national biomedical readiness, overseeing the acquisition of high-priority R&D services and manufacturing capabilities critical to pandemic and biothreat response. She manages a portfolio of complex, time-sensitive contracts involving advanced biotechnology, clinical trial support, and scalable production infrastructure, often under emergency authorities to expedite delivery during public health emergencies. Emmons cultivates partnerships with a diverse ecosystem of research institutions, biotech innovators, and contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs), prioritizing agility and technical excellence over traditional vendor hierarchies. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, her procurement patterns reflect a preference for agile, mission-aligned firms with proven capabilities in biosafety level 3/4 environments, mRNA platforms, and point-of-care diagnostics. She actively engages with entities capable of rapid scale-up and regulatory compliance under FDA and CDC frameworks. Her contracting approach is non-set-aside focused, with 100% of awards issued under full and open competition, reflecting the urgent, technical nature of DRIVe’s mission and the limited pool of qualified entities capable of meeting stringent biosafety and manufacturing standards. This does not indicate a lack of small business engagement, but rather a prioritization of technical capability and readiness over socioeconomic set-asides in mission-critical contexts. Emmons’ primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 541714 (Biotechnology R&D) and 541715 (Life Sciences R&D), driving acquisitions in vaccine platform development, antiviral therapeutics, biosensor technologies, and supply chain resilience tools. Her expertise spans translational research, GMP manufacturing readiness, and regulatory pathway navigation, ensuring that funded innovations transition efficiently from lab to large-scale production.