Shirlene Smith

Shirlene Smith serves as a Contract Specialist responsible for managing the full lifecycle of procurement actions within the education sector, with a primary focus on higher education and professional training services. She ensures compliance with federal acquisition regulations while facilitating timely and cost-effective contract awards that support institutional missions. Her work encompasses solicitation development, source selection, contract negotiation, and post-award administration, with an emphasis on delivering high-quality educational services through competitive and transparent processes. Smith plays a critical role in aligning acquisition strategies with agency objectives, ensuring that procurement activities support workforce development and academic excellence. While no specific contractor relationships are currently identified in the data, Smith engages with a broad spectrum of institutions and service providers specializing in postsecondary education, including colleges, universities, and professional training organizations. Her contracting approach emphasizes fairness, competition, and adherence to statutory requirements, fostering relationships with both large educational service providers and niche vendors offering specialized academic support functions. She maintains a neutral, process-driven engagement model that prioritizes compliance over preferential treatment. Smith’s procurement portfolio reflects a 100% preference for non-set-aside contracts, indicating a focus on open competition rather than socioeconomic set-asides such as 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB programs. This pattern suggests an operational emphasis on broad market access and institutional capacity over targeted socioeconomic initiatives, consistent with the nature of higher education procurement where eligibility criteria often prioritize accreditation and academic credentials over business size classifications. Her expertise is concentrated exclusively in NAICS 611310—Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools—indicating deep specialization in procuring academic instruction, research support, student services, and workforce training programs. She routinely manages contracts for curriculum development, distance learning platforms, accreditation services, and administrative support systems tailored to postsecondary institutions, demonstrating advanced technical knowledge of educational compliance frameworks and institutional funding models.