Tonya French

Tonya French serves as the primary contracting lead for the U.S. Army Engineer District Walla Walla, overseeing the acquisition of critical civil and military infrastructure support services across the Pacific Northwest. In this role, she manages a diverse portfolio of procurements aligned with the district’s mission to maintain dams, levees, locks, and hydropower facilities, ensuring operational readiness and public safety. Her responsibilities include soliciting, evaluating, and awarding contracts under federal acquisition regulations, with a strong emphasis on mission-critical engineering support, facility maintenance, and environmental compliance. She routinely handles service-based acquisitions requiring technical expertise in water resource management and infrastructure resilience. French maintains consistent working relationships with a core group of regional contractors, including JR Merit, Inc., Northbank Civil and Marine, Inc., North Wind General Contractors LLC, Knight Const. & Supply, Inc., and Transco Industries, Inc. These partnerships reflect a preference for contractors with proven experience in marine construction, civil works, and specialized engineering services essential to federal water infrastructure projects. Her procurement approach emphasizes reliability, local expertise, and performance-based outcomes, fostering long-term vendor collaboration grounded in compliance and technical proficiency. A defining feature of French’s contracting strategy is her strong commitment to small business participation, with approximately 90.9% of her awards structured as total small business set-asides under FAR 19.5. This pattern underscores a deliberate effort to maximize economic opportunity for small, locally-based firms, aligning with Army and federal socioeconomic goals. She rarely utilizes no-set-aside solicitations, demonstrating a consistent preference for inclusive contracting that supports regional economic development and workforce capacity building. Her primary NAICS focus areas include Security Guards and Patrol Services, Other Fabricated Wire Product Manufacturing, Motor and Generator Manufacturing, Linen Supply, and Janitorial Services—reflecting the broad operational needs of maintaining secure, functional, and sanitary military and civil infrastructure sites. These categories indicate her expertise in procuring ancillary but essential support services that enable the continuous operation of high-stakes federal installations.