Government Coins

Allen Thomas Regional Administrator Southeast Region  As Region IV Administrator, Allen Thomas will oversee SBA programs, offices, and operations in the SBA’s Southeast region, serving Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.   Mr. Thomas is a former three-term mayor, businessman, entrepreneur, and leader in public and private enter...

Al Gordon serves as CEO of National Strategies (NSI).   Since he founded the firm in 1996, Al has helped companies successfully navigate the complexities of legislative, regulatory, and procurement issues in the state and local government market.  Under his leadership, NSI has helped generate over $33 billion in new revenue, as well as executed dozens of successful legislative and regula...

Sandy McDonald has been the Director of the Broward County Office of Economic and Small BusinessDevelopment (OESBD) since June 2013. In alignment with OESBD’s mission to stimulate economic development, Mr. McDonald is committed to supporting the growth and development of small businesses in Broward County, which are a great asset to our local economy.   Mr. McDonald also serves as Broward’s d...

Liz Whitehead, CEO, 12PointFive Co-Mastermind, Diversity Masterminds® Liz Whitehead is the CEO of 12PointFive, a business development consultancy that specializes in building business development strategies so that diverse business owners can leverage certification and ultimately win new business. She supports her clients in reaching their goals through facilitation, consulting, and one-on-one coa...

One of the biggest challenges Government Contractors face is selling their services to the Federal Government. In a market worth billions, competition is high and the sales cycle is long. Small Businesses must be smart about how to spend their time and resources and arm themselves with information that can help them win more at a lower cost.    Often, companies feel they don’t have enoug...

Corey McCaster is the Director of the Office of Small Business and Supplier Diversity at Pinellas County Economic Development. There he leads one of the top Small Business Development Centers in the State and a rapidly expanding Small Business Enterprise (SBE) program that connects small business owners to more than $500,000,000 in government contracting opportunities annually. The SBE Program inc...

Lisette Washington is a member of Dentons’ US Government Contracts Practice, where she provides legal services to companies that maintain business with federal and state government agencies. Lisette’s legal practice focuses primarily on government contract counseling and litigation, and her work includes prime and subcontract disputes, bid protests, contract and regulatory compliance, investigatio...

Judy Bradt, CEO of Summit Insight, brings over 34 years as an expert not just in Federal contracting but also in the biggest challenge so many GovCons face on their road to their goals: how to build the relationships that we need to succeed with Federal buyers. As consultant, speaker, and author, she’s helped thousands of established businesses – small, mid-tier and large -- find their fast track...

Calvin J. Mitchell Jr, Director, Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) In 2020, Calvin J. Mitchell Jr. joined the U.S. Department of Education leadership team as the Director of the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU). As Director, implementing policies and initiatives throughout the Department to ensure that all socioeconomic categories of small...

Sheena Parker is the Founder & CEO of 4SYT Industries, a Facility Support Services government contracting company providing janitorial, flooring, pressure washing, painting, landscaping, real estate services, and more; to the federal and local government, as well as corporate agencies.  Sheena founded 4SYT Industries after working as a Real Estate investor, Acquisitions Manager and Wholes...

Gregory K. Spearman is a native of Glenwood, GA, and received his B. S. Degree from Fort Valley State University, Fort Valley, Georgia, a Master’s Degree from Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, and his M.P.H. degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, TX. He worked for the Houston- Galveston Area Council of Governments as a Healthcare Consultant and then as a Purcha...

More About Government Coins:   Government Coins is a podcast hosted by ShaKeia Kegler the founder of GovLia.    Government Coins is a brand new podcast focusing on— increasing small and minority-owned business participation in government contracting! Our goal is to dismantle barriers of entry by educating the small minority business community and providing them with more insight on...

Joseph Greger Small Business Program Manager Mr. Greger is the Small Business Program Manager and is located at DCAA Headquarters in Fort Belvoir, Virginia.  In this capacity, he serves as the program manager and audit expert for the small business program with responsibility to provide assistance, consultation and internal control with regard to audit requirements and their application to sm...

Nancy has over 30 years of experience helping small business owners at all stages of growth. As President and CEO of the WBDC of Florida, Nancy manages and leads an incredible team of staff, sponsors, partners, and women business leaders who are dedicated to certifying, connecting, and championing women in business. She is committed to promoting women- owned businesses and furthering The Council’s...

Dr. Zamora Crawford Olin is the CEO and Co-Founder of Crawford Olin, LLC. As the CEO of Crawford Olin, Dr. Olin has worked with small-medium-sized business to create viable business development strategies and sustainable growth solutions to increase their sales and competitive positioning in the federal marketplace. With over 20 years of experience in federal contracting and procurement, her stron...

One of the remarkable takeaways from the journey of 26-year-old Akil Alvin is that he began to achieve his dreams as he grew up — not when. From creating programming that revitalized his local library at 7 years old, to getting himself a job on the UniverSoul Circus marketing team at age 10, Akil tapped into his calling at a young age. It was a surprise to no one when, at 18, he launched his own c...

Nicole "Nic" Cober, Esquire is the Principal Managing Partner of Cober Johnson & Romney, an award-winning legal & business consulting firm and CJR Development, a real estate development and advisory firm. For nearly two decades, Nic has been an entrepreneur and advocate for the small business community. She is an executive coach & business strategist who specializes in developing manag...

Caryn Kent Dean, MLIS, CP APMP, CEO of Once Upon an RFP, founded Once Upon an RFP in 2018 after more than 20 years as a Proposal Professional. She and her team consistently create order from chaos, working with B2B and B2Governemnt businesses to stabilize and grow.  Caryn is passionate about connecting other professionals and businesses with opportunity, which has led to the development of ne...

Laurie Sayles is author, change agent, thought leader, and President & CEO of Civility Management Solutions (CivilityMS), a professional consulting services firm working within the Government and Commercial space. CivilityMS is a certified Small Business Administration 8(a), Women-Owned, and verified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business located in Greenbelt, MD.   Laurie has...

E. Darlene Bullock serves as the Director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU).  Ms. Bullock has over 27 years of experience in procurement, federal assistance, and acquisitions management. Before joining the OSDBU in January 2011, Ms. Bullock was a Division Director and Contracting Officer in the DHS, Office of Proc...

Matthew Johnson is the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Industry Liaison and Communications Director for the Office of Acquisition and Assistance. In this role he helps to connect and engage with organizations around doing business with USAID. He has led a number of initiatives in support of these efforts, including the creation of WorkwithUSAID.org, the Agency’s live-feed Busin...

Derek Sampson is the founder and lead Contract Specialist at LiaiCon, a service-disabled veteran-owned company that provides cradle-to-grave acquisition support to small businesses. As an Air Force veteran and former Contracting Officer, Derek uses his expertise to help small businesses owners navigate the complex world of federal contracting. Derek teaches individuals how to find, compete for, an...

Mr. Mann joined the NASA HQ Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) as a Small Business Program Manager in March 2009. Currently, Mr. Mann is the Program Manager for Marshall Space Flight Center, Stennis Space Center, the NASA Shared Services Center, and the NASA Management Office for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.  He also has OSBP responsibility for small business prime and subcontracting...

For this episode, we will be interviewing Thao Jones-Hill a govtech executive with 22 years of experience leading cloud-based software companies and projects at the Federal, State, Regional, and Local levels. For 10 years, Thao was a member of the founding executive team for Granicus, growing it to become one of the leading local government cloud-based software companies today.    During...

Mr. David Beck is the founder of HUB Venture Partners and Autonomous Directive Ventures also leads a team of engineers in the Government sector in autonomous unmanned systems development. He is an expert in systems engineering and human centered autonomous and smart-city autonomous systems.   Contact David: david@autondir.ai   https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbeckmba/