Hanscom employees win DOD, DAF Small Business honors

  • Published
  • By Lauren Russell
  • 66th Air Base Group Public Affairs

HANSCOM AIR FORCE BASE, Mass. – Two Air Force Life Cycle Management Center employees here were recently named top Department of Defense and Air Force small business professionals for 2020.

The honors recognize their outstanding efforts to respond to mission need amid pandemic challenges.

Jeff Emmons, AFLCMC Small Business Programs director operating at Hanscom, won the DOD’s Tracey L. Pinson Small Business Professional of the Year award. This award goes to the individual who embodies the small business mission to ensure a healthy and modernized industrial base, while advocating for small business.

“I’m honored to have won such a prestigious award, but I will always remember this was a team effort,” he said.

Ellen McDonnell, AFLCMC Small Business professional operating at Hanscom, was named the Air Force’s Small Business Professional of the Year.

Throughout 2020, McDonnell partnered with teams from three complex program executive office portfolios who obligated funds for more than 400 programs.

“I was humbled and honored to have won this title,” she said. “It’s really a reflection of the innovation and teamwork between us, the program executive offices, the contracting teams, along with the 66th Air Base Group and staff organizations.”

AFLCMC officials lauded the Hanscom team for their ability to leverage virtual platforms and continue their mission by providing outstanding support to Air Force acquisition teams throughout the pandemic.

“The past year has confirmed that small businesses are critical partners by being responsive to the mission, by being innovative, and being flexible in ways that cannot be matched by large enterprises,” said Luke Schultz, AFLCMC Small Business director at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. “Our small business professionals are crucial in linking these capabilities to existing and emerging mission requirements.”