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I’m excited to welcome you to the inaugural edition of the “Trailblazer Magazine”. It seemed fitting that our first publication would be during Black History Month, a time that focuses on the accomplishments of individuals despite the barriers that were systematically placed in their paths. That sounds like the HUBZone story to me! Each of us has the opportunity to use our talents to make this nation even better, to include others on our journey. I have the opportunity and privilege to take you with me as you read these pages. My real question is, will you come, and when you come will you be willing to add your talents, creating your own story? I hope your answer is YES! HUBZone Trailblazers are an integral component of our country’s story. Each month we will present a different theme which will highlight some of the movers and shakers that have made the HUBZone Program great. We will tell their story, how their commitment is leveling the playing field in their respective communities. I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to shine a major light on the heroes that are in the trenches some flying, some running, but all committed to revitalizing HUBZone Communities. For this edition, I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Freeman Hrabowski III the President of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). He has been blazing a trail for almost 60 years from marching in the “Children’s Crusade’ in Birmingham Alabama with Martin Luther King, Jr. to being interviewed on 60 Minutes. UMBC is at the forefront of not only developing a skilled workforce but the entrepreneurs for tomorrow. We want everyone to get involved with future editions topics like Women, Military, Technology, Manufacturing, and much more. If you want to be a sponsor or just share a story, we want to hear from you. As we turn the corner on COVID, remember the HUBZone Council has kept hope alive for so many distressed communities. We keep moving, we never standstill. See you next month as we feature the HUBZone Women Trailblazers. Enjoy the issue,
Lily Milliner Vice-Chair, HUBZone Council Inc. & CEO, Build IT Up, LLC 2
HUBZone Contractors National Council WHO WE ARE:
The HUBZone Contractors National Council is a non-
profit trade association providing information and support for companies and professionals interested in the HUBZone Program. Our mission is to assist small businesses from distressed areas maximize their success in earning federal contracts so that they may restore jobs and economic stability to those communities that need it the most. The Council promotes and advocates
for
improvements
to
the
program,
provides
information and assistance to help small businesses from distressed communities compete in the Federal marketplace.
HOW YOU CAN HELP? The Council represents hundreds of HUBZone concerns who provides a diverse range of goods and services. With millions of Americans out of work and small businesses closing their doors, the
council's advocacy efforts are more important than ever. As a non-profit, our impact is dependent on the generosity and support of our members and sponsors, so to further our mission, we need your HELP!
OUR MISSION ● Increase HUBZone contracting opportunities ● Advocate for Legislation and Policies to support HUBZone Small Businesses and their communities ● Promote Economic Development and meaningful employment opportunities within underserved communities ● Ensure HUBZone Small Businesses have access to the tools and resources they need to succeed
DONATE: Send a tax deductible donation via PayPal to support the councils education and outreach
efforts and workforce development program.
Support our workforce campaign by selecting HUBZone Council, Inc under your AMAZONSMILE account and a portion of your proceeds will go to support our cause.
FOLLOW US #HUBZoneCouncil #HZWorks4America 5
Trailblazing is a Choice. It is the decision to take the path that certainly will be uncomfortable. At 12 years old, President Freeman Hrabowski III decided to march in the Birmingham Children’s Crusade with Martin Luther King, Jr., knowing the possible consequences: jail, water hoses, beatings, and attack dogs. He went anyway. This courageous act resulted in a 5-day jail stay that would shape his entire trailblazing journey. For the last three decades, Dr. Hrabowski has been among the most successful university presidents in the nation. His team is disrupting the world’s view of HUBZones and Minority Serving Institutions with successes like winning the Mid-Atlantic Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition (2021 Regional, 2020 Regional, and 2017 National Champs); 2021 defeat of Yale University to win the American Mock Trial Association National Championship; receiving nation’s highest level of research performance (Research 1) and in 2021 Forbes’ Magazine ranked them among the nation’s top 50 public universities. UMBC is showing this country that you don't have to be rich to be the very best. What a powerful lesson! President Hrabowski said, “the American story—that’s what UMBC is, a formidable brain-trust.”
Impact of the HUBZone Designation.
Companies were suddenly attracted to UMBC because of its HUBZone status. The fact that these companies could get additional access to federal contracts along with UMBC’s cybersecurity, govtech, and biotech expertise was alluring. President Hrabowski was quick to give an example of this symbiotic relationship with Delali Dzirasa, CEO of Fearless, a graduate of UMBC, and a HUBZone Council member. He birthed his business in the Research Park and subsequently expanded his mission to influence the next generation of entrepreneurs. Today, UMBC continues to attract students locally, nationally, and internationally. Their enrollees include first-time offenders and students from more than 100 countries. This diverse, multi-cultural student body is eager to learn and more than willing to innovate as it disrupts the old way of doing things. In the 1990s, UMBC had to dispel two major community concerns. The first was that biotech meant that germs and viruses would be released into their communities. The second was that growth would lead to traffic congestion in their neighborhoods. Fortunately, UMBC had elected officials advocating for them, and those officials quickly dispelled the myths. Today, the community is thriving – and remains grateful for the revitalization and the thousands of jobs UMBC has brought to the community. Clearly, the Congressional HUBZone frame workers envisioned such results. President Hrabowski stated, “we're in a HUBZone that builds on this notion that we need to give access to people who might not have had access before, all of this fits into the vision of UMBC as a minority serving institution with students from all over … who have been underrepresented in such areas as cybersecurity and biotechnology.”
Entrepreneurship.
In 2006, UMBC received a grant from the Kauffman Foundation to build entrepreneurship programs. This grant quickly became a catalyst for teaching students how to be entrepreneurs. President Hrabowski said this ignited the following shift in his focus: “It taught me that the university should be working to help some people get jobs, but it should also be working to help some people create jobs, and this is what I had to learn as a middle-class kid out of Birmingham that is not just about getting a job it's about creating regions where you are creating jobs and we've been doing that now… it makes such a difference and that's the lesson for the country. We've got to prepare more people to be entrepreneurs and a part of that work and being an entrepreneur is that we have to make sure that we allow people to fail, I know this as a mathematician working with a lot of scientists sometimes you learn more from the failure than from the easy success …resilience you get knocked down we all do and you get back up and you learn from those mistakes ... this has led to our creating a number of these companies in the Research Park. This is a lesson that you only learn through experience otherwise all you think about is finding the people who can quite frankly fill the jobs...There is the creation of jobs and a culture that allows people to fail, to risk, to learn, and to succeed the next time. That's been the lesson I've learned over the past 30 years.“ 6
Nerdy Campus.
The number of minority graduates in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) from UMBC is staggering. At UMBC, depending on your age, nerdy is either “cool” or “chill.” The Urban Dictionary agrees, calling it unbelievably attractive – the new sexy. The Meyerhoff Scholars’ Program has helped prepare minority students for academic careers in the STEM disciplines. President Hrabowski, faculty, and students have worked hard to live up to that narrative. UMBC is the leading producer of talent for the National Security Agency (NSA) – as a matter of fact, more than 1,200 of their graduates currently work there. UMBC graduates hail from major organizations: a few notables include Drs. Kizzmekia Corbett, COVID-19 vaccine leader; former Surgeon General, Jerome Adams; Ralph Semmel, Director of Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; and James Clements, President of Clemson University. UMBC students are serious about their education – they’ve proven it. Whether it is winning a national cyber defense competition or beating Yale at the mock trials, these students have proven that they can excel in ethics and philosophy; they also excel in technology. Said best by President Hrabowski, “we need the country to feel good about having some nerdiness because when we look at the competition from China to Russia, we have to have kids that want to be really good, really high achieving and excited about this work...What I tell my students all the time, we are preparing you to change the world! Every time you help one person you’re changing the world, every time you help one child learn to read or to love mathematics the world changes.”
Relationships, Partnerships & Commission.
As chair of President Obama’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans, President Hrabowski said, “it can’t just be one sector that we talk about; it's not just education or the public sector it's how you connect private and public sectors together to build a pipeline to create the jobs to build the economy”. UMBC has forged relationships with strategic partners with a view of how the university educates African-Americans and others to be their best. Those partnerships are critical as graduates refine their skills, seek professional jobs, and launch their careers. It is very important for the business community, universities, and schools to have multi-level partnerships. One of UMBC’s most enlightened business partners is Northrop Grumman (NG). NG hires about 100 UMBC students annually in technology areas. NG also mentors young entrepreneurs and helps them build cybersecurity companies – and helps them bring in customers. NG also works with UMBC at the elementary- and middle-school levels to build a continuous pipeline for math and science. NG supports UMBC’s Center for Women in IT to attract women into technology areas. Finally, NG has been a strategic partner in building the economy in their corridor. Maryland’s Governor and legislature work together with UMBC to promote its educational mission, such as Maryland Institute for Computing along with the first apprenticeship-level cybersecurity program in the nation. In June 2022, President Hrabowski will be leaving UMBC to start the next chapter of his journey. We are grateful to him and wish him all the best. Having just reviewed his book, “The Empowered University: Shared Leadership, Culture Change, and Academic Success,” the Council can’t wait to see what trail he blazes next.
There is the creation of jobs and a culture that allows people to fail, to risk, to learn, and to succeed the next time. 7 Dr.
Freeman Hrabowski III President of UMBC
ASSOCIATION
Mr. Frazier has spent over a quarter of a century opening financial and banking doors for underserved Maryland businesses encouraging investments, wealth, and innovation. He served as the Chief Lending Officer for Harbor Bank (African American Owned) and then as President of MWMCA having the unique distinction of assisting in the lending and receiving of capital within HUBZone communities.
Wayne R. Frazier, Sr., President, Maryland Washington Minority Companies Association
As a catalyst for economic growth, he has created alliances between small and large businesses. When the Council asked Mr. Frazier what his greatest achievement to Black History thus far , he said “a long history of assisting African American businesses achieve skill, financial strength, and scale to the next level.” His trail is littered with businesses growing their balance sheets from several thousand to millions of dollars.
Mr. Frazier is using his influence to ensure major job creation in Maryland’s rural and urban areas (Maryland General Assembly (SB-644): State Procurement – Preferences for HUBZones). This bill is sponsored by Senator Johnny Ray Salling (6th District-Republican) giving preferences to businesses that are committed to employing 35% of their workforce from underserved rural and urban communities. Mr. Frazier would like Maryland to be the 1st in the nation to enact state-level HUBZone preference legislation. To support SB-644, contact Senator Salling office at 410-841-3587 and/or give testimony on March 2, 2022. Additionally, Maryland Public Service Commission has referred a HUBZone preference initiative to their Utility Forum for action as part of its supplier diversity [February 2022]. This is a great opportunity for the smaller utilities to play a critical role in rural job creation in Maryland.
CAPACITY BUILDING
Mr. Davis leads a Philadelphia based-HUBZone company that has excelled in helping their clients in the federal, state, and private sectors provide quantitative and qualitative services through research and evaluation to some of the most disenfranchised people in America. Americans whose capacity has been hindered due to income, education, transportation, health, food, insurance, age, ability, housing, or language. MDAC’s processes and systems gather actionable data on social and economic determinants to Morris Davis, President, M. assist their clients in mitigating these disparities. Davis & Company, Inc. (MDAC)
For MDAC, trailblazing means getting in the trenches, not being afraid of interacting with the respondents in order to gather meaningful data. For instance, they developed a management information system that integrated health risk assessments into the management and operational decision-making for multiple health plans. Over the years, MDAC’s way of critical thinking and data gathering has ignited the careers of their workforce to consider greater educational and employment opportunities. These future trailblazers were trained to gather, analyze, and create processes to determine impacts on underrepresented communities. COVID did not slow them down, instead they supported the New York City Economic Development Corporation in their research and evaluation of the Pandemic Response Institute Latino and Indigenous/ African American Stakeholders Focus Groups. MDAC sought input from community leaders to identify critical gaps/challenges in NYC’s public health system (both broadly and with respect to COVID-19), strengths to build upon, and potential roles the Pandemic Response Institute might play to support the needs of communities and community- based organizations across NYC. 8
DEFENSE As the chair, Mr. Smith is blazing a trail as a servant leader to the Federal OSDBU stakeholders. He has the critical task of ensuring that small business decisions enacted at the executive, legislative, and judicial levels are embraced by the OSDBU Council. He works with OSDBU leaders to assure that all reasonable and practicable opportunities for small business participation are identified and realized by providing the advocacy the public deserves. Jimmy Smith, Director, Chair of OSDBU Council & Office of Small Business Programs, Department of the Navy
Fostering an environment where everyone is of service, listening and helping to steer in the same direction; whereby translating the regulations to ultimately serve the citizens of this nation. As a HBCU graduate and a seasoned engineer he often reminds his colleagues, “we can’t sit around admiring the problem it is time to be of service for others.” That commitment has been honed over his 30 years of civil service of helping warfighters come back safely. As the ultimate trailblazer, Mr. Smith has taken that same military spirit to the nation’s small business community. He said, “small businesses’ most impressive weapons are their agility, innovation, and pricing. They need to continue to sharpen their pencils, pivot quickly and provide exceptional service.” Additionally, remember you will never get a second opportunity to fail, you must deliver. The government wants the goods and services at the
right time and at the right level. For the Navy, COVID pandemic presented problems and opportunities for HUBZone businesses. As the demand for support surged the HUBZones which were able to quickly ramp up to meet this increased volume did well. Mr. Smith hopes the takeaway for the HUBZone community is it is all about delivery; so, work together to increase population, capacity, while still keeping the cost down. Our government is strengthened when HUBZone businesses provide strategic advantages which benefit our warfighters. 9
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FORTUNE 500
As a HUBZone trailblazer, Ms. Brooks’ superpower is being a small business evangelist. She is the person that brings the good news about HUBZones’ capabilities to both the public and private sector. Her current role has allowed her to become a key influencer in advocating and disseminating information about SAIC. Known for her ability to connect the right HUBZones companies with the right products and services passionately providing the wisdom needed to promote their brands.
Advocating for small businesses for over 20 years, Ms. Brooks is quick to listen and assist businesses wherever she can. You may hear her say “you don’t know, what you don’t know.” Reminding us of our special blind spots that may be keeping us from blazing our own trail. Considered by many to be a honest knowledge broker, mentor, and coach; Ms. Brooks’ followers are continuously expanding her network of contract-ready small businesses.
Rita Brooks, Director, Small Business Programs Corporate at SAIC
More than an influencer, she truly is a small business evangelist believing that when large businesses create partnerships leveraging the innovation, creativity, and expertise of small businesses the nation is truly strengthened. As a truth broker, she diligently works with HUBZones to ensure that they put their best foot forward. The foot that will in fact get them ultimately a contract. This often means that she has to have the hard conversations, the ones were pitches and materials are thoroughly critiqued. One of her favorite lines is “you only have one chance to make a first impression, so make sure your chance works for you.” Ms. Brooks purpose driven approach requires the small business ecosystem to stop standing on the sidelines and start working in the field. As a trailblazer, she believes revival is here! She provides guidance and leadership in small business relations, diverse supplier sourcing, geo-political advocacy, and business development.
HEALTH & SCIENCE
For over a decade, she has been blazing a trail for HUBZone companies with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) by hosting HUBZone Access Forums and Capability Briefings with CORs, Primes and CO. Ms. Miles’ innovation approaches generate millions of dollars to HUBZone communities while garnering her multiple procurement and supplier diversity awards including Who’s Who in Black Atlanta.
The COVID pandemic has presented new challenges and opportunities for HUBZone companies wishing to support CDC. Ms. Miles works with small business contractors throughout the nation in their pursuit of CDC related contracting opportunities. She has met this health crisis with the same resoluteness she exhibited during her 30-year span with the federal government.
Gwendolyn Miles, HHS Small Business Specialist for CDC
Ms. Miles is a HUBZone program champion fully embracing the fact that increasing economic opportunities can help improve health factors in a community, which aligns with CDC’s overall public health mission. To that end, she is considered by many a 360-degree small business advocate well-known for consistently promoting contract identification, investigation, investment, innovation, interest, implementation, and issue resolution. Ms. Miles courageously advises CDC internal stakeholders on procurement strategies promoting the transition of small HUBZone contracts to larger HUBZone IDIQs while addressing proposed solicitations that involve bundling of contract requirements. 12
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POLITICS
CBC Chairwoman Beatty is committed to using the full Constitutional power, statutory authority, and financial resources of the federal government to ensure that African Americans and other marginalized communities in the US have the opportunity to achieve the American Dream. Therefore, fighting for HUBZone communities. This marginalization is not divided by the color of a persons’ skin but the zip code in which they live.
She has been quoted as saying “Right now, our nation is facing three pandemics that have disproportionately impacted the lives of Black Americans: COVID-19, economic turmoil, and social injustice. As Chair, I will work with the Biden Administration, House and Senate Leadership, as well as my congressional colleagues, to defeat the pandemic and ensure better days lie ahead for all of us. Moreover, I will use my voice to address enduring economic and health disparities and fight to break the chains of systemic racism that have held back the Black community for far too long.” This trailblazer has stayed the course, here are a few of the bills she sponsored during the 117th Congress to address the disparities within our nation.
Joyce Beatty, Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus
H.R.5893 —21st Century STEM for Girls and Underrepresented Minorities Act H.R.2123 —Diversity and Inclusion Data Accountability and Transparency Act H.R.1394 — 117th Congress (2021-2022) Black History is American History Act H.R.2001 —Diversity Data Accountability Act H.R.236 — To nullify the effect of Executive Order 13950 relating to combating race and sex stereotyping. • • • • •
Subcommittee Chairman Mfume is a HBCU graduate and a longtime support of small businesses. This trailblazer put forth an amendment to raise the federal government’s small businesses contracting goals in the House’s version of FY2022 National Defense Authorization Act. As chair his subcommittee assesses the federal procurement system, including those programs designed specifically to enhance participation by small businesses in providing goods and services to the federal government. The Subcommittee reviews the broad scope of opportunities available to small businesses for rebuilding and Rep. Kweisi Mfume (MD-7), modernizing the nations’ infrastructure. Chairman , Contracting & Infrastructure , Committee on Small Business
Oversight of government-wide procurement practices and programs affecting small businesses. • Oversight of federal procurement policies that inhibit or expand participation by small businesses in the federal contracting marketplace. • All contracting programs established by the Small Business Act, including HUBZone, 8(a), • Women, and Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business Programs. • Technical assistance provided to federal contractors and prospective contractors through SBA personnel, Offices of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization, and Procurement Technical Assistance Centers. •
The SBA Surety Bond guarantee program. General oversight of programs available to small businesses in modernizing and strengthening the nation’s infrastructure. Prior to his current stint in congress, he worked to negotiate, develop, and author the first ever signed “Network Television Diversity Agreements” with NBC, ABC, CBS, and Fox. Congressman Mfume helped negotiate for and successfully secured the NAACP’s official United Nations’ Status as a Non-Governmental Organization within that world body with all of the rights and privileges thereto and pertaining. • •
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TECHNOLOGY
This trailblazer is constantly on the move “driving technology into the future.” When we caught up with Mr. Adams, he wanted us to tell his fellow HUBZone Business owners that there will be valleys but push through them to the mountaintops. Find your own trail and persevere. So, it was not surprising that just before COVID hit, Cogent Solutions received the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency HUBZone Business of the Year Award for outstanding accomplishments by a contractor, called the “Administrators Award.”
Glen Adams, CEO, Cogent Solutions
An early adopter, Mr. Adams quickly saw the merits of the HUBZone program and became certified in 2003. This CEO has leveraged his degrees in Management Information Systems and Divinity to promote social and technology justice. Additionally, as a retired military Warrant Officer and SDVOSB, he has hosted dozens of advocacy events to assist local underserved veterans in their quest to receive the veteran benefits they are entitled to. When it comes to increasing the HUBZone technology workforce within the Cogent ranks, Mr. Adams will tell you, “Failure is not an Option.” Whether it is a college student who needs financial support while working their way through college or a middle-aged single-parent with three jobs, Cogent has stepped in, providing the training, employment, and mentoring needed for them to soar. Cogent was indeed an answer to their prayers. Mr. Adams believes that being a trailblazer is making sure that the path behind him is not scorching the earth but instead fertilizing the ground for new HUBzone businesses that follow behind him. He picked up the torch from John J. Wright, the son of slaves. An early social justice advocate “resolving that he must first prepare to help foster this movement”; starting the first high school for black students in Spotsylvania County, Virginia in 1913. Today Cogent is keeping the movement alive fostering technology in this community.
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TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS
The Perry’s trailblazing strength has been their ability to successfully balance professional and personal lives. They received the Department of Homeland Security Small Business Achievement Award for outstanding support to the Center for Domestic Preparedness. This HUBZone company has consistently mitigated the impact of natural disasters by supporting many of FEMA’s surge requirements including facility maintenance, custodial services, fire safety, and contaminated Monica Perry (CEO) & Henry waste disposal. We asked the Perry’s why the future looks so bright for Perry President, HME, Inc. HUBZones, they said “abundance of will.” Mr. Perry then quoted a familiar Vince Lombardi “ The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.” Based in Tennessee, when it comes to southern hospitality (service, assistance, and charity), HME is the firm folks want to work with or for. They have a history of what we call “home spun services” that is services that are of extreme quality and worth the money. These trailblazers live by two mottos “can’t do it — can’t stay here” & “Hustle beats talent when talent doesn’t hustle!” This philosophy is fundamental to their ability to provide exceptional support. For years the Perry’s have mentored underserved companies (construction, logistics, transportation, maintenance, janitorial, and warehousing) sharing the various lessons learned to improve bottom-lines like outsourcing services such as HR, payroll, accounting in order to focus on core areas of competencies while remaining price competitive. Additionally, the Perry’s passion for assisting underserved communities has led to their newest venture designing and developing affordable apartments for low-income senior citizens.
YOUNG DISRUPTOR Ed Emerson, Delmock Technologies
This twentysomething trailblazer is the quantum project coordinator for a Baltimore based HUBZone company (Delmock Technologies, Inc.). They were a subcontractor to Morgan State University one of the nation’s oldest Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). This contract addressed ways to mitigate hyper-disparities in Quantum Literacy Education and Training for Historically Underrepresented Groups [https://youtu.be/FUDmB8MQufE].
As part of the National Science Foundation’s Convergence Accelerator, Mr. Emerson hosted the National Quantum Literacy Network’s first roundtable for youth thought-leaders from HBCUs and Minority Serving Institutions on the future of quantum and the workforce impact [Delmock_1.mp4 (vimeo.com)]. His panel delved into the influence of the Media & Entertainment Industries on quantum literacy for both millennials and generation-Zers particularly “Flash” from the DC Comics Universe. They acknowledge the affect these industries have on the creativity and open mindedness of the young people currently entering the workforce. Mr. Emerson is blazing an inclusive quantum trail which continues to encourage racial, economic, and generational diversity within the industry. Influencers arrived from as far as the Caribbean to attend his quantum roundtable. These historically underrepresented trailblazers come ready to explore the workforce possibilities as it leads them to mitigate health, technology, security, and science disparities in their perspective communities.
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December 13, 2021: TIME magazine’s famed Person of the Year issue today announced Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett as a Hero of the Year for her leadership in developing the COVID-19 vaccine. Served as the scientific lead of the Vaccine Research Center’s coronavirus team in the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases developing new mRNA technology for the COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. Corbett is an University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) graduate (in a HUBZone).
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January 20, 2021: Kamala Devi Harris, First African Female Vice President of the United States, and a Howard University graduate (HUBZone Area)
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September 5, 2017: Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adam, and an UMBC graduate (in a HUBZone)
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February 18, 2016: Dr. Kafui Dzirasa, Duke Professor & Psychiatrist, received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE) which is the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on outstanding scientists and engineers in the early stages of their independent research careers and an UMBC graduate (in a HUBZone)
March 2:2022: Maryland General Assembly (Senate Bill 644) State Procurement – Preferences – Historically Underutilized Business Zone This bill is sponsored by Senator Johnny Ray Salling (6th District-Republican) giving preferences to businesses that are committed to employing 35% of their workforce from underserved rural and urban communities. If passed Maryland could be the 1st in the nation to enact state-level HUBZone preference legislation. This would dramatically increase the amount of HUBZone opportunity in the State of Maryland.
February 9, 2022: Pennsylvania General Assembly (House Bill 1712) was laid on the table. An Act amending Title 62 (Procurement) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in diverse and disadvantaged businesses, further providing for definitions and for woman-owned business, minority-owned business or veteran-owned business and establishing the HUB Zone Business Procurement Program. “We must remember that intelligence is not enough. Intelligence plus character–that is the goal of true education. The complete education gives one not only power of concentration, but worthy objectives upon which to concentrate.” Martin Luther King Jr. 1947
Data Retrieved from TeamingPro; 5,858 HUBZone SBC's with ACTIVE profiles but if it’s including inactive profiles the total is 8,309.
SBG-Eligible Obligated
Small Business Actions
Small Business Vendors
Small Business Obligated
Overall Small Business %
$57,101.1M
295.8K
24,880
$13,146.8M
23.0%
WOSB
66,623
5,501
$2,303.3M
4.0%
VOSB
38,294
4,585
$3,500.4M
6.1%
SDVOSB
27,903
3,101
$2,922.6M
5.1%
SDB
71,257
9,884
$5,650.2M
9.9%
HUBZone
16,157
1,365
$1,085.9M
1.9%
As we approach the end of the 2nd quarter GSA Small Business Dashboard, a total of 1,365 HUBZone businesses have received awards in FY 2022 and currently, HUBZone spend is around 1.9%.
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