Lisa T. Bethea

Lisa Bethea serves as a key procurement professional within the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, supporting the Department of the Navy’s mission to advance naval aviation readiness through research, development, test, and evaluation of mission-critical aircraft systems. She manages complex acquisitions for advanced avionics, flight control instrumentation, diagnostic systems, and specialized maintenance infrastructure, ensuring technical alignment with next-generation naval airpower requirements. Her work bridges engineering innovation with federal contracting compliance, overseeing full lifecycle procurements from solicitation to contract award for high-technology, low-volume systems requiring stringent performance validation. Bethea maintains consistent partnerships with leading defense and aerospace contractors including Lockheed Martin Corporation, BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc., and PCI Aviation LLC, among others. These relationships are characterized by long-term collaboration on specialized technical solutions requiring deep domain expertise in aircraft systems integration, sensor development, and real-time data acquisition. She frequently engages with niche vendors possessing unique certifications and proprietary technologies, fostering innovation through targeted sole-source and competitive negotiated procurements under FAR Part 15. Her contracting approach prioritizes open competition, with 84.8% of awards issued without set-aside designations, reflecting the specialized nature of the technologies procured. Nevertheless, she actively supports small business participation, with 15.2% of awards allocated under Total Small Business Set-Asides, consistently enabling qualified small firms to contribute to critical aviation sustainment initiatives. Her primary procurement focus centers on NAICS codes 511210 (Software Publishers), 334519 (Other Measuring and Controlling Device Manufacturing), and 335312 (Motor and Generator Manufacturing), reflecting a technical emphasis on embedded software, precision instrumentation, and electromechanical systems essential to aircraft performance and diagnostics. She specializes in acquiring mission-critical components that demand rigorous environmental, electromagnetic, and operational testing under naval aviation standards.