Laura Lugo

Laura Lugo serves as a Small Business Specialist and APFS Coordinator for the U.S. Coast Guard, where she plays a pivotal role in advancing socioeconomic contracting objectives within the agency’s acquisition lifecycle. She supports the procurement mission by ensuring compliance with FAR Part 19, facilitating small business participation in complex maritime and infrastructure contracts, and advising contracting officers on optimal set-aside strategies. Her work centers on high-value acquisitions related to vessel sustainment, shore infrastructure modernization, and logistics modernization, with a focus on aligning procurement outcomes with the Coast Guard’s operational readiness goals. Lugo maintains consistent working relationships with major defense and shipbuilding contractors including Huntington Ingalls Inc., Bollinger Shipyards Lockport, L.L.C., L3Harris Technologies Integrated Systems L.P., Airbus US Space & Defense Inc., and Whiting-Turner Contracting Company. These partnerships reflect the Coast Guard’s reliance on industrial base capabilities in ship repair, defense systems integration, and facility construction. She collaborates closely with prime contractors to identify subcontracting opportunities and ensure robust small business participation plans are embedded in contract performance. While the majority of her portfolio—85.2%—is awarded without set-asides, Lugo actively champions small business inclusion, with 14.8% of awards designated as Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5. She prioritizes maximizing opportunities for small businesses across all socioeconomic categories, particularly in technical domains aligned with Coast Guard missions, and consistently integrates small business outreach into pre-solicitation planning. Her primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 336611 (Ship Building and Repairing), which accounts for nearly half of her portfolio, followed by 333618 (Other Engine Equipment Manufacturing) and 333923 (Overhead Crane Systems). She routinely oversees acquisitions for marine propulsion systems, maritime infrastructure upgrades, and integrated command and control hardware, demonstrating deep technical familiarity with naval engineering and defense logistics domains.