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JBSA News
NEWS | Sept. 14, 2021

MICC members dominate contracting excellence awards

By Daniel P. Elkins Mission and Installation Contracting Command Public Affairs Office

Three members nominated by the Mission and Installation Contracting Command won their award categories as part of the fiscal 2020 Army Contracting Command Annual Awards for Excellence in Contracting.

The awards were announced to the command during a MICC-wide town hall Sept. 2 conducted virtually from Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston.

The three winners among 11 total MICC Soldiers, civilians and teams came away with more winning entries than any other ACC subordinate contracting organization.

“These outstanding MICC contracting and support professionals demonstrate this command’s effectiveness in overcoming the uncertainty and disruption brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic in fiscal 2020,” said Clay Cole, the deputy to the MICC commanding general at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston. “Their extraordinary efforts in support of our installation and garrison mission partners evidence not only recognition by our higher headquarters but also their dedication to ensuring the needs of our Soldiers and their families are met.”

MICC members at JBSA-Fort Sam Houston earning the excellence in contracting distinction include Karina Haddix, Jennifer Hastedt and Emory Cowan.

Haddix, from the MICC-Fort Sam Houston contracting office, was named the ACC Outstanding Contract Specialist.

She executed the full foodservice portfolio of contracts at Fort Gordon, Georgia, and Fort Bliss, Texas, enabling more than five million meals annually for Soldiers across the Army. She helped pioneer the centralized execution of approximately $2.4 billion worth of Army full food service contracts across the continental United States in support of Army’s category management initiatives, which saved an average of 17% compared to the previous FFS contracts.

Haddix also assisted with the award and administration of the high visibility Mobile-Federal Law Enforcement Enterprise Technical Services contract, which ties into the FirstNet wireless network enhancing Installation Management Command emergency response communications capabilities for Army public safety officers, first responders and emergency officials during national emergencies when wireless services may be impacted.

Hastedt, from the MICC Field Directorate Office, earned the ACC Outstanding Mission Support Business Operations award for other than major weapons systems.

As a supervisory procurement analyst, she managed the business operations division that supports three geographically separated offices and the FDO-Fort Sam Houston staff with personnel actions, logistics support, training guidance, management of the government purchase card program, quality assurance oversight, and operational direction.

Having filled a position that was vacant for almost a year, Hastedt immediately implemented systematic processes and procedures ensuring the timely completion of weekly headquarters significant action reports, standardized bi-weekly director update briefs, and taskings.

The implementation of business process improvements resulted in the timely completion of 100% of mandatory training and continuous learning points, and the review of 99% of individual development plans. She also served as the procuring contracting officer for a vital COVID-19 contract that provided government agencies the ability to contract for logistic and medical support under one contract.

Cowan, now assigned to the 410th Contracting Support Brigade JBSA-Fort Sam Houston, is the ACC Outstanding Workforce Development Specialist.

While previously serving as an IT specialist with FDO-Fort Sam Houston, his technical knowledge led to the selection to support the Army North COVID-19 mission, where he designed a dual-purpose SharePoint portal for contract requirements submission and tracking as well as a training and reference repository for the Defense Support to Civil Authorities mission.

Cowan also volunteered to assist in the onboarding and training of the ARNORTH operational contract support integration cell, developing a career-broadening program to standardize training for Soldiers in the 51 Charlie contracting MOS and record their progress. He was responsible for mentoring 51C Soldiers in the development of training packages for market research, which is required by supported mission partners before soliciting offers for all federal government contract requirements.