Public Procurement Change Agents

Gillian Gillett, program manager for integrated mobility at CalTrans (and Civic Initiatives client), talks with Dustin Lanier about innovative and ongoing procurement initiatives being driven by CalTrans related to public transit and recent announcements from other states in participating in the outcomes of these solicitations.

Dustin and Fred talk about the NIGP virtual forum and the upcoming procurement leadership summit in September.

Dustin interviews the newest Civic Initiatives team member Devin Howard about her approach to education and certification as she develops her public procurement career.  Dustin also reviews content from the week on education and certification options posted to Linkedin.

How do we give new people in procurement exposure to the work so that they can lead how to take leadership roles, and how do we manage actual transitions? This topic came up right at the end of our discussion last week on Hot Jobs, so we discuss strategies on this important topic.

Our practitioner panel discussing the topic this time around includes Jaime Schorr, Justin Sullivan, Jenny Hedderman, Alli McNally, Christin Webb, Jonathan Walker and Yen Pang.

We had a really great discussion on "Hot Jobs" in Public Procurement with our practitioner panel - Jaime Schorr, Justin Sullivan, James Crenshaw, Jenny Hedderman, Jonathan Walker, Yen Pang, Christina Semeraro and Alli Mcnally.  We agreed to carry this topic forward into succession planning in a future chat.

I'd encourage you to check out the document post on "Hot Jobs" from last week on Linkedin in concert with the podcast -  If you are looking to plan a career path in public procurement, take a listen and reach out if I can help you. I know lots of people who may be looking for you!

In a panel discussion hosted by the Center for Technology, Dustin Lanier joins Deborah Giles, Ying Chan, Tracie Bryant, Melissa Griggs, and Gregg Descheemaeker.  The topic was ESSER grants - i.e. the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund - and the process and protocol for use.  Lanier's content was around on the Treasury guidance and best practices in use of federal funds in procurement.

If you are in k-12 (or a friend of k-12!) you will enjoy the content!

The National Association of State Chief Administrators has a new comprehensive report out on the impact of remote work on real estate portfolios.  Dustin interviews Pam Goins, the NASCA Executive Director,  about this report for this week's podcast, which picks up the themes of "Work from Anywhere" that we discussed in Clubhouse a couple of weeks ago.

Procurement has been particularly impacted by the pandemic in terms of needing to learn and adopt new processes when teams that had never been remote were suddenly completely remote.  And even now with return to office happening, many procurement organizations will stay remote or at least hybrid, so this is a timely report.

With ARPA and ESSER funds starting to come into the pipeline in the next month, it will be an interesting time for procurement. Normal start of the fiscal year pressure will only be accelerated with new funding that may have specialized procurement needs.

Compounding all of that is the fact that rules that were relaxed during Covid will begin snapping back into place, and federal funding always brings new reporting and use requirements that need to be proactively planned for.

Joining Dustin Lanier in the practitioner panel are Jaime Schorr, Jenny Hedderman, Justin Sullivan, Christina Semeraro and Jennifer Sulentic.

Ransomware has combined supply chain and cybersecurity in new unique ways - Dustin Lanier was joined in a discussion by Rob Handfield of NC State and Steve Nichols of the State of Georgia.

In a fast talk presentation for NIGP Chapter leaders, Dustin Lanier describes an approach to content creation that extends business strategies, and how to approach the process when you are building a plan from scratch.