Vote Online for Your APMP-NCA 2010 Board of Directors

When: The polls have been closed.

APMP-NCA Slate of Directors for 2010

The election for the National Capital Area Chapter of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals is now open. Please vote for one candidate for each position. Voting closes at 5:00 pm EST on December 23, 2009 and results will be posted on December 24. The candidate bios are presented below. Thank you for your participation.

Executive Board
President, Brenda Crist
Vice President, Chris Simmons
Secretary, Colleen Jolly
Treasurer, Eric Schwarz

Directors At Large:
Annual Conference Chairperson, Briana Coleman
Boot Camp Chairperson, Maryann Lesnick
Chief Technology Officer, Michael Scruggs
Corporate Partner Program Chairperson, Jack Worrell or Lisa McDonald
Event Logistics Chairperson, Bob Miller
eZine Chairperson, Olessia Smotrova- Taylor
Marketing & Web Site Chairperson, Jay Schiavo
Membership Chairperson, Jan Butorac
Networking Chairperson, Alex Brown
Roundtable Chairperson, Hélène Courard

Executive Board Bios:

President, Brenda Crist
Brenda Crist has 25 years of experience providing capture, proposal, and program management support for information technology companies serving the Federal market. She is currently the Managing Director, Strategic Solutions at the Lohfeld Consulting Group. Prior to becoming a full-time proposal professional, she served as a Group Manager for OAO Corporation and Project Manager for Harris Corporation. She has provided system, application, and network management solutions for civilian and military clients. She is the Vice President of the APMP National Capital Area Chapter and was a speaker at the APMP National Conference in June 2009. Brenda holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from American University and is ITIL and PPM.APMP certified.

Vice President, Chris Simmons
Chris has been on the NCA board as the Membership Committee Chair since 2007 and has been instrumental in helping to grow local chapter membership by almost 300 members (approximately 1,000 total members). He is regular contributor to the NCA Executive Summary e-zine, and a contributing author to the APMP Journal. Chris has presented at the NCA Proposal Basics Boot Camp for the past two years and presented at the APMP International 20th Anniversary Conference. He has 24 years’ experience as a consultant and business development executive for CGI (formerly American Management Systems), Deloitte Consulting, and most recently as the principal member of Rainmakerz Consulting LLC. Chris founded Rainmakerz Consulting in 2002 as a business development services company specializing in all aspects of proposal development. He earned his MBA in Information Technology from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst) and was elected MBA Program President. He earned his BA from Boston College in Psychology.

Secretary, Colleen Jolly
Colleen Jolly, AM.APMP, a 10 year proposal veteran, manages a global professional proposal graphic company – 24 Hour Company. Colleen is very active in the APMP including Layout Editor for the APMP Journal and regularly contributes articles. She is a frequent worldwide speaker on creative and general business topics, and has spoken at many APMP conferences. Additionally, she manages the online SIG/COI on information graphics, a joint effort between NCA and UK chapters. She holds a BA from Georgetown University, and is active in leadership roles and Board positions in arts and women’s non-profit organizations, including being a South East of England Woman’s Enterprise Ambassador. Colleen is an award-winning artist and business professional—most recently as a finalist for the Stevie Awards Creative Professional of the Year, 2009. Her company won entry into Inc. 5,000’s Fast Growing Companies, 2007 and she has been published three times in a women’s entrepreneurial calendar.

Treasurer, Eric Schwarz
Eric has more than 16 years’ experience as an analyst, program manager, and business developer, with exposure to all aspects of proposal development and management. Since 2004, he has been working as the capture/proposal manager for Information Builders’ Federal Systems Group. Prior to his business development career, he served for over 13 years in the U.S. Army. Eric currently serves as the finance committee chair of the Northern Virginia chapter of AFCEA with over 7,000 members. Eric holds BA and MBA degrees. He has been an active member of APMP since September 2007 and currently serves as a Director at Large of the NCA Board of Directors.

At Large Director Bios (in alphabetical order)

Annual Conference Chairperson (formerly Professional Day), Briana Coleman
Briana provides proposal management service to clients. Highly skilled in proposal strategy development, proposal coordination, writing, copy editing, desktop publishing, and project management. She holds a BA in Psychology and Criminology/Criminal Justice from the University of Maryland (Cum Laude), as well as a Master’s Certificate in Project Management from the George Washington University. Briana is an active member of APMP, serving as a National Capital Area Chapter (NCA) Roundtable Committee Member and chairing two Roundtable Events. She also serves on NCA’s Professional Day Committee and authored the Professional Day Event Planning Guide.

Proposal Basics Boot Camp Chairperson, Maryann Lesnick
Maryann Lesnick, APM.APMP, PMP, serves as Vice President of Proposals for Base Technologies, Inc., in McLean, Virginia. She has over thirty years of technical, managerial, and business development experience in a diverse range of information technology areas, for federal agencies, and the private sector (public utilities and telecommunications companies). She has prepared hundreds of proposals for contracts and task orders, both written and oral, and has delivered several oral proposals. Maryann has served on the Committee for the APMP-NCA Boot Camp the past two years, and is Chair of that Committee for 2010. She is a certified Practitioner Level APMP, and also a Program Management Professional (PMP).

Chief Technology Officer, Michael Scruggs
Michael is a PPM.APMP with more than 20 years of capture management and proposal management experience in the government marketplace. He currently directs a proposal center for McLean-based Pragmatics, an information technology service provider that supports DoS, DISA, and other federal agencies. He formerly worked for Microsoft, SAIC, and other IT firms where he led capture and proposal teams pursuing government opportunities. He earned his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. In 2007, he received his Professional Proposal Manager accreditation from the London-based APM Group, a leading international accreditation, certification, and examination body. He’s been active with APMP-NCA since 1999, serving as the chapter’s chair for two terms (2006-2007). During this time, he worked with other NCA directors to refresh the www.apmpnca.org Web site. In 2007, APMP leadership awarded Mr. Scruggs the Steven Shipley Award for Best Chapter Leadership.

Vote for Corporate Partner Program Chairperson, Jack Worrell or Lisa McDonald

Jack Worrell
Jack is Vice President, Government Solutions at ICT Group. His responsibilities span capture management, solution development, and new relationships. He has more than twenty years of outsourced Customer Service experience, built upon an operations background, in both government and commercial sectors. His experience with the Federal government spans work for agencies needing contact center services and consulting, and teaming with major government suppliers. Previously, Jack was with TCIM Services, where managed operations, account management and sales units during his tenure. He spanned the operational and creative aspects of customer care for the federal government (Treasury, Commerce, FTC, Army, others) and private sector clients (AT&T, Verizon, Nissan, American Express, Bank of America, others). After graduating from Penn State University with a degree in Political Science, and graduate work at Indiana State University, Jack worked on Capitol Hill in the House and Senate.

Lisa McDonald
Lisa is the Chief executive Officer of the Paradigm Consulting Group, a small minority woman owned professional services firm located in the Washington DC corridor. Lisa has she has successfully built a strong, prevalent brand within the proposal arena over the past four years. Paradigm’s two niche service lines are Staff-Augmentation (resources with government clearances) and Proposal Management services. She is also an accomplished Capture and Proposal Management professional with solid experience in management and marketing. She has over 10 strong years experience in leading capture and proposal efforts in the government sector. Her expertise includes high level pricing strategy, project cost/risk analysis, and competitive analysis. Using the Shipley methodology, she has led proposal efforts from inception to delivery. Lisa graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor’s degree in English. She has been an active member of the Association for Proposal Manager Professionals since January 2008.

Event Logistics Chairperson, Bob Miller
Bob is the sole proprietor and consultant of Miller Consulting, providing capture and proposal management support for clients pursuing opportunities across the Federal Government sector. He has over nine years’ as a business process engineer, line manager, and business area manager with TRW and Northrop Grumman and has extensive experience in all phases of business development. Bob is a retired Army officer with 21 years of active duty experience.

eZine Chairperson, Olessia Smotrova- Taylor
Olessia has 14 years of professional experience in a variety of industries, focused on proposal and capture management, marketing, and communications. Her company, OST Global Solutions, Inc., specializes in capture and proposal management and training. Olessia is also a member of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). Prior to founding her company, Olessia worked as a business developer for Raytheon and Lockheed Martin and wrote for the Financial Times of London. She has a BA in International Affairs from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

Marketing & Web Site Chairperson, Jay Schiavo
Jay has served on the NCA Board since 2005. After a career in association management, specializing in membership, marketing, and customer service, Jay set up his own consulting business in 2002—All Media Creative Integrated Marketing Communications located in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. Since 2003, Jay has served as Marketing Communications Specialist for Falls Church-based 24 Hour Company, a firm specializing in proposal graphics. He completed his bachelor’s degree from Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio.

Membership Chairperson, Jan Butorac
Jan has 25+ years’ experience in the proposal field, and has served as Chapter Secretary for four years. Jan is an independent proposal consultant and president of Proposal Management, LLC, providing proposal writing and management consulting from her Haymarket office. She previously worked for Northrop Grumman IT and other federal contractors around the Beltway. Jan received a Master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University and a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland.

Networking Chairperson, Alex Brown
Alex Brown is a Relationship Manager with Proposal Development Consultants, specializing in helping federal contractors source and staff proposal talent needed to win business. He has extensive experience with full lifecycle recruiting for 1099 contractors and direct hire proposal candidates at experience levels appropriate for both the federal contracting and private sector arenas. Alex is a skilled relationship builder and has established a large personal network of proposal professionals in the DC marketplace. He has held a board position with the National Capital Area chapter of APMP (Association of Proposal Manager Professionals) in the past and is excited to be involved again. Alex brings a successful track record of sourcing and placing proposal professionals for sister company The BOSS Group, a creative staffing agency that had a division that worked with Federal Contractors in the proposal arena, before spinning it off as Proposal Development Consultants. He also has experience in business development for Vedior North America, servicing Fortune500 clients in the metro Boston area.

Roundtable Chairperson, Hélène Courard
Hélène is the Managing Director of the Proposal Process and Infrastructure Solutions Division, Hélène works with clients to develop and implement defined, repeatable, managed, measured, and optimized proposal infrastructures and processes. Hélène brings over 10 years’ experience in capture and proposal infrastructure and proposal operations to assist clients in raising their win probability and reducing effort required to create winning proposals. Prior to joining Lohfeld Consulting Group, Hélène spent over 8 years within CSC’s Defense Group in various roles, including establishing and running two Proposal Operations teams—at the Division and Group levels—within the organization. Hélène is an active member of the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP), National Capital Area (NCA) Chapter Roundtable Committee (2008 and 2009) and has attained her Foundational Accreditation with APMP. Hélène has a bachelor’s degree from Saint Joseph’s University and a law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law.