Programs

Marleitha Williams

Supplier Diversity Program Manager
Board of Governors, Federal Reserve Board System

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Marleitha G. Williams is the supplier diversity program manager for the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. In this capacity, she is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act as it relates to the inclusion of minority-owned and women-owned business enterprises in the Board’s acquisition process.

Prior to joining the Federal Reserve Board in 2011, Ms. Williams worked at Alabama’s largest electric utility corporation, Alabama Power Company, where she provided leadership and strategic direction to corporate business units in delivering results toward defined supplier diversity goals.

Throughout her career in Supplier Diversity and Supplier Relations, she has been affiliated with various organizations that focus on minority and women business development, including the U. S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce, National Minority Supplier Development Council and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council. She has been recognized in local and national publications such as Women Enterprise USA for her work in Supplier Diversity. Ms. Williams received her bachelor’s degree from Birmingham Southern College.

Dr. Jay Snipes

Chief, Diversity and Business Inclusion Officer
FDIC

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Jay Snipes is the Chief for Diversity and Business Inclusion at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) with the responsibility of promoting fair inclusion in federal contracting and business activities, leading & assessing FDIC-supervised financial institutions, including diversity policies and practices, and evaluating whether FDIC contractors are demonstrating good faith efforts to include minorities and women in their workforce.

Jay previously served as the Diversity and Inclusion Officer at the U.S. Treasury, Bureau of the Fiscal Service where he led the Bureau’s culture improvement initiatives and strategic direction on diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) matters. As a participant in the White
House Leadership Development Program, he was the equity lead for the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. In this program, he led the implementation of a cross agency solution that increased the number of new entrants to the Federal marketplace to address the decline in the socio-economic small business supplier base supporting OMB Memo 22-03 & Executive Order 13985.

Dr. Snipes has extensive experience leading transformational change - providing executive leadership on DEIA opportunities, vision, and strategic direction, and was also the principal advisor for Fiscal Service on civil rights and diversity public policy planning - development,
formulation, issuance, and policy evaluation. He has used metrics, program evaluation and reporting systems to benchmark organizational progress in meeting DEIA goals and objectives,
and developed standards to assess the diversity policies and practices of entities supervised by the agency.

Dr. Snipes has his Doctorate in Business Administration and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) and Agile Professional (PMI-ACP). In 2022, he was selected as a Top 40 Under 40 in Birmingham, AL - a designation for the city’s most influential leaders and successful entrepreneurs. He is a highly requested speaker and subject matter expert in interagency coordination workgroups, committees, industry, and trade organization conferences on discussions of leading DEIA practices, including the Annual International Colloquium on Financial Management for National Governments, co-hosted by Canada, and the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) Conference. Just recently, Jay served as a curriculum design expert planning and designing MBA and Bachelor curricula for Herzing University’s MBA professional draws upon his professional expertise to ensure proper learning outcomes for students.

Jay enjoys spending time with his family, and in his downtime, he can be seen chauffeuring his kids around to multiple sporting and school events.

Statement:
“DEIA is not about shifting the focus from one group to another, it’s about expanding opportunities and enlarging the focus to shine on us all.” – Annual Progress Statement

Charles Williams

Small Business Program Manager
NASA

Michelle E. Warren

Deputy Director Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU)
U.S. Department of Agriculture

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Michelle Warren began her federal career with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1988, as a Federal Market News Reporter within the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) Agency, then later served as the Contracting Officer for the Commodity Procurement Branch, responsible for the supervision of purchasing teams which administers contracts for commodities for distribution to the National School Lunch Program and other Food Assistance Programs.

By 2010, Michelle was assigned Program Manager in the Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU). In December 2015, Michelle was appointed Deputy Director in OSDBU and still holds that position. It is her responsibility to provide maximum opportunities for small businesses to participate in USDA contracting activities. Michelle served in the Acting Director’s capacity from December 2016-May 2022.

Educating, and Supporting the Buyer and the Seller is OSDBU’s core value.

Michelle’s philosophy is, “Think about what you want to do, DO IT, then think about what you have done!”

Michelle is a graduate of Virginia State University located in Petersburg, VA with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Business and Economics.

Darlene Bullock

Executive Director, OSDBU
U.S. Department of Homeland Security

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E. Darlene Bullock was appointed as the Executive Director of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) in January 2020. She served as the OSDBU Deputy Director from 2015 to late 2019.

As the Executive Director, Ms. Bullock implements the Department’s federal small business procurement programs across the DHS $26 billion contracting operation which awarded almost $10 billion to small businesses in Fiscal Year 2023. Because of her work in ensuring diversity and equity in federal procurement Ms. Bullock received the 2023 Small Business and Procurement Equity Individual Award by the Chief Acquisition Officers Council in October 2023. Ms. Bullock’s various roles and work in the OSDBU, has helped DHS achieve fifteen consecutive scores of an “A” or “A+”, since Fiscal Year 2009, on the Small Business Administration’s annual Small Business Procurement Scorecard. This makes DHS the largest agency with this track record.

With over 33 years of experience in procurement, federal assistance, and acquisitions management, Ms. Bullock has held leadership positions at several Federal and local agencies including DHS, U.S. Agency for International Development, U. S. Department of Commerce, District of Columbia Government, and the U.S. Army. She has an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Business and Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and an MBA in International Management from Southeastern University.

Meishoma Hayes

Senior Small Businesses Utilization Specialist
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development

Mandy Wylie

Senior Small Business Specialist
U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)

Mandy Wylie is the Senior Small Business Specialist in the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization (OSDBU) in the Procurement Assistance Division. In this capacity, she assists small business owners to market their products and services and increase the participation of small and disadvantaged businesses in DOT procurement opportunities. Mandy is also the Service Disable Veteran Owned Small Businesses (SDVOSB) advocate and acting Women Owned Small Business (WOSB) advocate.

Mandy has a Master’s Degree in Public Administration and 13+ years of experience in Federal contracting and acquisition policy. She started her federal career as a Contracts Specialist at the Department of Homeland Security in the Office of Procurement Operations. In the fall of 2016, Mandy joined the DOT’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Office of Acquisition and Grants Management as a Senior Contracting Officer. Starting in 2018, Mandy was promoted internally to the Team Leader in the Office of Acquisition Policy and Oversight. In this capacity, Mandy served as the Small Business Specialist for FHWA until she transferred to OSDBU as the Senior Small Business Specialist in March 2023.