Contract Specialist Procurement Event Planning Insurance Agent

MARIA H. GARDNER

*** ****** *****, ***** *******, TX 75154

Email: ********@*****.*** Phone: 469-***-****

SUMMARY

Contracts professional with more than 20 years of experience in the corporate, nonprofit and government sectors of business, yielding an in-depth understanding of business development, communications, and marketing principles. Detail-oriented, creative thinker, skilled in duties/responsibilities necessary to manage, perform, or develop policies and procedures for professional work involving the procurement of supplies, services, construction, or research and development using formal advertising or negotiation procedures; the evaluation of contract price proposals; and the administration or termination and close out of contracts. Knowledge of the legislation, regulations, and methods used in contracting; and knowledge of business and industry practices, sources of supply, cost factor, and requirements characteristics. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

SUPERIOR NOTARY SOLUTIONS INC., Birmingham, AL – Dallas, TX Apr 2008 – Present

Independent Consultant, Contracts Management

• Perform the full range of pre-award functions involving procurements (including assistance agreements), typically involving professional/technical services, programs of research and development, specialized equipment or IT systems.

• Responsible for the solicitation, analysis, evaluation, and negotiation of proposals and budgets.

• Solicit, evaluate, negotiate, and award contracts with commercial organizations, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and State or local governments for furnishing products, services, construction or research and development.

• Perform acquisition planning, scheduling procurement from time of acceptance of requirement through award. Develop procurement objectives for the requirement in terms of competition and price range, and constructs the considerations.

• Prepare and maintain current acquisition plans, appropriate milestone charts, and related schedules.

• Perform detailed analyses of all elements of cost in contractor and applicant proposals and budget applications, and make competitive range determinations.

• Conduct pre-proposal conferences with prospective offerors and applicants to arrive at a clear understanding of what is required under the proposed procurement. Obtain appropriate data from technical officials.

• Issue solicitations, with amendments as necessary, to clarify questions concerning such topics as specification changes, language ambiguities, or clarification of contract clauses.

• Perform the full range of post-award functions involving procurements (including assistance agreements) to include negotiation of contract changes, administrative and other modifications, termination, and closeout. DALLAS AREA RAPID TRANSIT (DART), Dallas, TX

Mar 2018 – Oct 2021

Senior Contract Specialist, Bridgefarmer & Associates, Inc., Dal-Tech Engineering, Inc., Dallas, TX

• Coordinated procurements to provide professional services staff support for capital projects requiring multiple solicitations, development and understanding of procurement plans, schedules, and negotiation strategies. Responsible for contract management and administration of the Professional Services Pool, Environmental Services, and On-Call Construction Maintenance contracts.

• Prepared and developed solicitation plans and documents, including clarification of requirements, specifications, and schedules for DART’s most complex procurements. Analyzed requirements, selecting contract type including terms and conditions. Coordinated with technical staff and subject matter experts to establish proposal evaluation criteria and selection of Source Evaluation Committee. Coordinated with other DART functional areas to facilitate project budgets and procurements.

• Developed solicitations in accordance with DART’s Procurement Regulations, Procedures Manual, and other requirements of Federal, State and local laws.

• Conducted pre-proposal conferences with contractors and consultants. Reviewed and evaluated proposals, bids and/or offers in coordination with departmental technical representatives. Analyzed and evaluated cost or price proposals and accounting systems data to determine pricing fair and reasonable.

• Maintained liaison with DART and technical department, or with necessary industry contacts. Acted as an official spokesperson regarding contract matters for DART.

• Planned and conducted negotiations, serving as the negotiation team leader for assigned procurements. Prepared contract documents and coordinated award of contracts. Made recommendation for award/no award of contracts to Contracting Officer.

• Maintained responsibility for the development of pre-negotiation position, when appropriate; served as chairperson on the technical evaluation of proposals and market plans. Controlled discussions with offerors and documented all discussions.

• Managed contract administration from inception through final closeout, including monitoring consultant activities to ensure compliance with the provisions of the contract; acting as liaison with the consultant and the DART technical staff; reviewing invoices and approving payments, contract interpretation, facilitating resolution of disputes; preparing modifications, and change-order actions, as necessary. Maintained complete files and current consultant and contract status. Initiated default or termination actions, or instituted necessary negotiation procedures.

• Closed out contracts including obtaining appropriate releases, acceptance certificates, warranties, and disposition of retained payments. Performed self-audits as assigned for contract and solicitation files.

• Perform other related duties as assigned.

CACI INTERNATIONAL, Arlington, VA

Jan 2017 – Mar 2018

Acquisition Specialist, General Services Administration (GSA), Dallas, TX

• Performed pre/post-award and termination activities, such as: analyzing requirements, recommending revisions to statements of work/specifications, determining the appropriate type of contract, establishing milestones, acquisition/procurement planning, conducting post-award and contractual terminations, initiating briefings with contractors to ensure full understanding of contract terms, handling modifications, resolution of issues related to non-compliance, and the termination process.

• Applied Federal statutes, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) to administer a group of complex contracts; using negotiation and communication techniques in order to conduct post award negotiations and a variety of contractual agreements; applying cost and price analysis techniques sufficient to compare proposals; applying business and industry practices to identify factors affecting contractor's costs, to understand commercial pricing policies, use of catalogues, comparative analysis, and price based techniques, and to conduct on-site surveys to assess contractor's ability to perform; and applying cost accounting standards and accounting practices in order to review and draw accurate conclusions on contract provisions.

• Coordinated with technical staff and subject matter experts to establish proposal evaluation criteria and selection of Source Evaluation Committee.

• Developed, implemented and analyzed data requirements for planning and measurement systems.

• Analyzed performance of procurement activities against various procurement indicators and goals; analyzed data to determine trends.

• Tracked/monitored contract actions to ensure compliance with GSA policy, administrative procedures, regulations, and statutes.

• Performed pre/post-award contracting functions to help clients achieve results and meet their mission.

• Identified acquisition objectives and methodologies; developed statements of work; performed analyses of elements of cost; made competitive range determinations; conducted pre-proposal conferences; planned comprehensive negotiation strategy; coordinated with technical experts, led negotiations and awarded contracts.

• Developed, coordinated, and revised a wide variety of Government-wide procurement policies, reviewing proposed changes to existing regulations and determining whether they should be addressed.

• Provided principal policy advice, analyzed comments and proposed legislative changes.

• Developed and presented presentations, defending complex and often controversial positions which are subject to considerable Congressional scrutiny and preparing expert response to Congressional correspondence.

• Identified and analyzed acquisition process problems, trends, and emerging needs, formulating and justifying new statutory initiatives to address unique problems, to meet newly emerging acquisition needs, and to resolve critical procurement process problems. FEDERAL DEPOSIT INSURANCE CORPORATION, Dallas, TX

Sep 2010 – Sep 2015

Contract Oversight Specialist

• Provided technical support for the Information Technology, Credit and Owned Real Estate operational areas of FDIC DRR Contract Oversight, assisting contract officers and contract oversight managers in performing the full range of pre-award, post-award, and termination activities, including analyzing requirements, recommending revisions to statements of work, utilizing various types of contracts, establishing milestones, acquisition planning, participating in briefings with contractor personnel to ensure the full understanding of contracting terms, handling modifications, invoice processing, oversight of contract expenditures, resolution of compliance issues, and the contract termination process.

• Supported the FDIC Personnel Security Program by conducting, reviewing, and adjudicating background investigations on FDIC contract and subcontract personnel requiring federal employment and access to national security information, providing oversight and direction to the FDIC Background Investigation process and overseeing the development of and updates to FDIC contractor on-boarding policy and standard system access and operating procedures.

• Participated in financial institution closings; assisted in researching and responding to inquiries from FDIC employees, the financial community and the general public; established and maintained files, records, correspondence and information using automated systems; reviewed pertinent documents and materials to identify and correct technical deficiencies in the documentation; reviewed, reconciled, processed and prepared a variety of financial related legal cases; and input, maintained and monitored logs and records using FDIC proprietary software and databases.

LICENSES & CERTIFICATIONS

Certified Contracts Specialist, Corporate University, Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Certified Notary Signing Agent, National Notary Association Notary Public, State of Texas at Large, Current Commission: 10/27/2020 to 10/27/2024 Texas Life Insurance Agent, Current License Expiration 03/31/2023 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT & AWARDS

Contract Oversight Management, The George Washington University Law School, Government Contracts Program, FDIC, Division of Administration, Acquisition Services Branch Contract Oversight Administration, Contract Support, Corporate University, FDIC, Division of Administration, Acquisition Services Branch

FDIC Star Award for participation in the Contract Management system development, testing and implementation FDIC Star Award for testing and implementation of the Contractor Management System upgrade and 11G Roll Out FDIC Star Award for performing as Portal SME (Subject Matter Expert) in conducting the DRR Contracting Dashboard data validation and providing dashboard training classes FDIC Star Award for team participation identifying and consolidating departmental job aids FDIC Star Award for overall dedication and contributions to the creation of Contract Oversight Video Job Aids FDIC Star Award for planning the highly successful Semi-Annual Contract Oversight Meeting FDIC Star Award for assembling the DRR Dashboard Data Validation Team and leading dashboard data reporting EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM

Bachelor of Science in Finance, 1996

Minor Studies in Marketing

TECHNICAL SKILLS

Microsoft Office Suite, Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Publisher, Outlook, various procurement industry web- based and data management systems, various internet-based and social media platforms REFERENCES

Furnished upon request.

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