Michelle Gilliland

Michelle Gilliland serves as a Contract Specialist for the Land Between The Lakes National Recreation Area under the U.S. Forest Service, where she manages the full lifecycle of procurement actions to support mission-critical infrastructure and operational services. Her role ensures compliance with federal acquisition regulations while advancing the agency’s goals of ecological stewardship and public access. She routinely handles acquisitions for surveying and mapping services, as well as facility maintenance and parking infrastructure, ensuring that recreational assets remain safe, functional, and resilient for public use. Her work directly supports strategic initiatives to modernize outdoor infrastructure and enhance visitor experiences through timely, transparent contracting. Gilliland collaborates with a diverse pool of vendors, primarily small businesses and specialized service providers in land management and civil engineering support. While no single contractor dominates her portfolio, she fosters long-term partnerships with firms capable of delivering precise geospatial data collection, land surveying, and parking facility operations. Her contracting patterns reflect a preference for responsive, locally rooted vendors with demonstrated experience in federal public lands environments, emphasizing reliability, environmental compliance, and adherence to USDA standards. Her procurement strategy is evenly split between open competitions and Total Small Business Set-Asides under FAR 19.5, reflecting a strong institutional commitment to expanding economic opportunity for small businesses. She consistently prioritizes small business participation without reliance on other socioeconomic categories such as 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB, demonstrating a focused alignment with the agency’s broader goals of inclusive contracting and community engagement. Gilliland’s primary procurement focus lies in NAICS 541370 (Surveying and Mapping Services) and 812930 (Parking Lots and Garages). She specializes in acquiring topographic surveys, boundary delineations, GIS data collection, and the maintenance or construction of vehicular access infrastructure. Her technical expertise spans geospatial data standards, land use compliance, and public works contracting, ensuring that acquisitions meet both environmental and operational requirements for a nationally managed recreation area.