Intro: 00:00

Welcome to the Heard and Empowered podcast, presented by National Industries for the Blind. We’re on a mission to empower people who are blind, low-vision, or visually impaired to build fulfilling careers, gain personal independence, and take the next step toward achieving their own American dream. Guests from all walks of life share their journeys and how they overcame challenges they faced along the way. Whatever your interests, experience, talents, or career goals, listen to discover important connections and unlock the resources and inspiration you need to chart a new path. Ready to be heard and empowered?

Soraya Correa: 00:41

Hello and welcome to Mission Driven, a special series of the Heard and Empowered podcast.

I’m Soraya Correa, president and CEO of the National Industries for the Blind. And I’ll be your host for these episodes. We chose Mission Driven as the title for this series because mission is at the very heart of what we do at NIB.

We create jobs for people who are blind or low vision or visually impaired so they can live their American dream. Mission is also incredibly important to me, and the reason why I have dedicated my career to service, even after I retired from my career in the federal government. In these episodes, I’ll be sitting down with people who are an integral part of our mission: agency CEOs, government representatives, NIB customers, and others who play a vital role in supporting our mission. Together, we will discuss issues we face and how we are all driven to fulfill the tasks we’ve taken on. I’m thrilled that you have chosen to join us.

Thank you. With me today is US Air Force Major General Alice Treviño. She is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, and has served our country for more than 30 years. General Trevino is currently the Deputy Assistant Secretary for contracting in the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics at the Pentagon. In that role, she is responsible for all aspects of contracting relating to the acquisition of weapons systems, logistics operations, and enterprise efforts for the Air Force.

She also provides contingency contracting support to the geographic combatant commanders, and leads a highly skilled staff of mission-focused business leaders and acquisition change agents to deliver $825 billion in United States Air Force and space platforms. General Treviño is the contracting functional manager for nearly 9000 professionals who execute programs worth approximately $99 billion annually for the Department of the Air Force. General Treviño, thank you for joining us on Mission Driven.

Maj. Gen. Alice Treviño: 02:38

Thank you for having me on. I’m so excited.

Soraya Correa: 02:41

Thank you. So first, I thought we’d open up by letting you tell us a little bit about yourself. What led you to join the Air Force?

Maj. Gen. Alice Treviño: 02:49

Well, so thanks for asking that question. And again, thanks for having me on today. I’m really excited. One of the things that my team briefed me on beforehand is that this podcast is a stepping stone for listeners. So I’m just really excited to be part of that pond as we ripple across the air, you know, everybody who’s listening and everybody who contributes to our defense ecosystem.

But when I first went to the Air Force Academy, actually almost 36 years ago, I could not have envisioned where I would be today. And I just knew that my dad had been in the Air Force. And I grew up in southern Indiana. I actually didn’t know the difference between the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marines. I just knew about the military and that you wore a uniform.

So if we fast forward 36 years, I have been building stepping stones along the way and I was a management major. I love everything about what we do for our business side of the national defense and our military, and investing and partnering with our government counterparts and our contracting contractor counterparts, because it’s really about the investments that we’re making in our nation. But those stepping stones along the way have led to, you know what? What might have been a short, five-year career into over over 30 years, as you said, and just building, not just with the people that have been investing in me, but me being able to reinvest in them, because it really is about our national security and our economy. And that all interplays together.

So starting out with a very small management degree and learning about supply chain along the way and how to award contracts, and again, working with everybody that invests in this across the nation. You know, I don’t know if — did you ever read Freedom’s Forge about the American arsenal, you know from World War II by was it Herman? But it’s like when, when I read that book, you know, I realized like, oh, these things are going along in all the time, but you sometimes you don’t stop and pay attention. You watch the news, but maybe you’re not paying real attention. And when I look back, when you take that time to reflect, you realize, wow, those stepping stones along the way, you know, they they they paid off in spades by keeping you motivated and keeping you excited and then being able to share that education and that information that you were learning with others, which is really the synergy of everything that happens in our military and across the nation.

Soraya Correa: 05:45

Hey, I couldn’t agree with you more. We’re almost like kindred spirits because I followed in my father’s footsteps in federal service when I came into the government. And I know you were terribly young when you came in, I can tell, right? Because 36 years is a long time. But that’s fantastic.

And I agree with you. They are stepping stones. And just as we are inspired to, to carry on and to focus on the missions that we serve, we also inspire others when we rise to these leadership roles. I think it’s our duty where it’s incumbent upon us to make sure that we’re continually inspiring the next generation, to make sure that we keep the greatness in our country. So thank you for sharing that with us. That was great.

Maj. Gen. Alice Treviño: 06:31

I think we are kindred spirits because that it’s all about the next generation, right? That’s the whole legacy. It’s not about us. It’s about them. And what can I do?

Soraya Correa: 06:40

So that’s right. How do I influence them? How do I get them to come on board and keep the good fight going, so to speak? So in addition to what you shared about your journey, what else do you think? Would you like our listeners to know about you?

What do you want them to know about you?

Maj. Gen. Alice Treviño: 06:51

So I would like to share, you know, that it’s an honor to serve as the deputy assistant secretary for contracting for the Department of the Air Force. And if you had asked me 32 years ago, would I be sitting in this chair today? It would be a resounding no. But for all those folks who invested in me, and then every single opportunity that I got, what my father and my mom taught me was just, you know, seize the opportunity no matter what it is, and you’re going to perform, you’re going to be able to help others with you. Hold yourself to a high standard.

And the most exciting thing that has really happened in less than 30 days ago is for our Department of the Air Force contracting team, you know, which reinforces the Department of the Air Force acquisition mission. The Department of the Air Force, everything Air Force and Space Force related. And of course, to Secretary of Defense. Our Secretary Haig says for the Department of Defense at large.

We’re really moving fast, and we want to make sure that we are deterring conflict, projecting power by delivering integrated contracting capability. So less than a month ago, on the 28th of February, we just released our contracting flight plan. And if you know it’s it we modify every year. We get with our senior contracting officials and we identify, okay, here’s how far we’ve come in 2024. Now where are we going in 2025.

Just like everybody does their strategic plan, just like I’m sure you have done for the National Institute of the Blind, you have your strategic plan and we just released that. So I would love to talk about that. I’m very excited about that. But that is something and it’s available publicly. So you can go on our public webpage and pull that down.

But it’s an exciting time in our, in our nation and everything that we’re doing for national security, but really for contracting, you know, not not less. We definitely need more. But it’s how fast can we move? Can we move in a fast direction? How do we help our people?

How do we make sure that we’re seizing those acquisition authorities that we have and working with Congress and then learning from things and then listening from, again that whole defense ecosystem.

Soraya Correa: 09:16

Fantastic. And I know that the Air Force has been at the forefront of focusing on how do we improve acquisitions, how do we speed up the process, and how do we make it more beneficial for the warfighter. And certainly those of us that worked in the civilian side, we modeled a lot after the Air Force and we shared a lot of ideas. So thank you very much for sharing that with us. That’s extremely important.

I’d like to take a minute to get your take on the priorities in contracting. Especially contract closeouts. As you know, NIB provides support to the Department of Defense. And contract closeouts an area that I think is incredibly important, especially when it comes to savings for the government, you know, saving the government money and the obligating unexpended funds.

Would you like to comment on that a little bit? Some of the work that we’re doing in the contract closeouts arena and priorities.

Maj. Gen. Alice Treviño: 10:02

Yeah, I love and I know that.

Soraya Correa: 10:04

You and your team have been working with contract closeouts as subject matter experts to help with that across DOD, not just the Department of the Air Force for over ten years and contract closeouts. It’s kind of interesting because, you know, if you people will often use the term like back to basics and, you know, you got to get the basics done, right. And part of that basics is about, you know, just general housekeeping, right? And if you award a contract, you have to close it out.

Maj. Gen. Alice Treviño: 10:30

I mean, it’s just basic. But sometimes it doesn’t get the attention that it needs. But as you said, when you can when you know, when the contract is closed out and if there are any remaining funds on there, we want to be able to obligate those. And we need to do it in a timely manner, because when we do it in a timely manner, we are then able to reuse those funds if we obligate them in an untimely manner. And there are reasons for that. You know, sometimes contracts get complex and complicated, and we need to negotiate.

You know, in more detail. Or as contracts have changed over time and they just got more complex. But when you can obligate in the timely manner, you are then able to return those funds again to the Department of the Air Force, or in the timely manner before they expire. Overarching to the Department of the Treasury. And so that really again, helps the national security mission, because we’ll be able to expend those funds on what we need for our warfighters.

And as I already said, it’s all about, you know, lethality. It’s about what the joint force needs. It’s about I love what General Allen says. It’s like more Air Force, but not just the same, more. It’s how do we move forward.

And that’s about modernization. And so we need those funds. And contract closeout plays an integral role in that. It also kind of really helps. Overarching for our priorities is about our auditability.

And so we need to know, you know, if you spend again I believe in alignment, prioritization, simplification and the simplification piece in this for your listeners. If I award a contract for $10 and I expend $9.99, I cannot close that contract out until I remove that penny. Can I reuse that penny? Can I give that penny to somebody else? You know, or can it go back to the Department of the Treasury again?

Total oversimplification here to help the listener. But depending on where that penny is, I need to know where it is I am. I’m responsible for it. I have to have that auditability trail. And so in Department of Air Force Contracting, we have contract award systems and our major, our legacy systems.

As we close those down and we bring on our new system, which again, is across Department of Defense is CON-IT. That contract award system will have that audit auditability built in. Some of our legacy systems, they’re 20 and 30 years old. And until those sundown, you cannot fully stand up the new contracting award system. And so contract closeout is really important for that as well, because until you can sundown and build up the new one, you are then having to actually pay for two systems.

And that isn’t something like overnight you can say, okay, switch on. And you know there’s nothing left in the old system. And so we are watching that very closely as well. So very strategically, a lot of moving parts, but at simple is making sure that we contract closeout on time and we remove those funds, making sure that we have the contract in the right award system so that we can audit it, and making sure that we team with our Defense Contract Management Agency with our DFAS personnel counterparts and of course with industry to make sure that everybody has their ducks in a row and that the accounting, you know, whether it’s a debit or credit, is financially auditable and that we’re all saying the same thing. So it’s a lot of stakeholders.

It’s really important. It’s not easy, but we can keep it simple. And we want to make sure that we keep it simple so that we can keep moving forward and getting better and better in that.

Soraya Correa: 14:58

I hear you say that because I do think that a lot of folks don’t give priority to the contract closeout. You know, it’s easy to kind of just move on to the next contract award, move on to the next contract and keep going and not give that some thought. And there is a lot of money that could be left at the table if you’re not closing out those contracts timely, and it does impact your systems. I would agree with that, especially when you’re trying to transition to newer systems. In fact, some of the stats that we have since 2010, our contract management support program for the Department of Defense has identified more than 26 billion available for $26 billion available for the obligation, and closed out more than 595,000 contracts.

And we are maintaining a very high quality standard of 99.6%, so we’re pretty proud of that. But more importantly, we’re proud of the support that we can give to the Department of Defense because we do want our contracting teams out there to be focused on the priorities and contracts that you have identified. So happy to support. Always happy to hear, you know, for someone like me who came from the contracting profession, I was very proud to hear that we support this area and that we focus on this, and we’re very dedicated to it. So thank you so much for that.

You mentioned the flight plan. I didn’t know if you wanted to talk a little bit more about that. I’d like to open it up if you’d like to share a little bit more.

Maj. Gen. Alice Treviño: 16:17

Sure. Well, so at large, for our contracting flight plan this year, we have about 24 key results. And we have four lines of effort. So our four lines of effort are. The first one is about building, building, mission focused business leaders. And what the listener needs to know is that that’s all about our people and we need to recruit.

We need to retain, we need to develop our people, and we have to invest in them. So not everybody who comes in, actually, I can say that most people that come into contracting, whether or not it’s on the government side or the contractor side, is they’re going to be brand new. No, no matter almost no matter what degree that you have, you’re going to have key components to be able to understand contracting, but it’s not necessarily natural. And so we have to invest in you to get you up to speed as fast as possible, because it is a complex profession. And we that’s why that recruitment is so important and development never ends, right?

It’s like lifelong learning. We have continuous learning points, but it’s really about some people think, oh, the pinnacle is I obtained an unlimited contracting officer warrant. And I always tell people when they come in and they say, hey, earn my warrant, ma’am, I said, congratulations. Now you have two things. Invite the next generation behind you, because I want you to pour into them because you know how difficult it was for you to earn your warrant.

And now I want you to bring others along with you. And the second one is. Don’t stop learning. Keep doubling down, because none of us know it all. And it’s, you know, how do you stay on top of education and evolution of all the changes?

You just never stop learning. They. So that’s our low one. And I almost went off because I started talking about warrants. But I get so excited about our people and how to help them and how they can reinvest in our next generation.

Our second line of effort is tools, not rules. And I did already talk about it and some of our legacy systems, but it’s about those tools that we can again, invest in and invest our time. It’s not necessarily money, but invest our time in to help bring people along and make contracting more of an integrated contracting capability so that we are, again, contributing to that warrior ethos, making sure that we are doing our part for national security, to defend and to deter adversaries, and making sure that we’re delivering that warfighting capability. But we are investing in some of the tools is digital transformation. So artificial intelligence, large language models, teaching people how to use our GPT and helping them be more efficient.

So again, they can award contracts as fast, as fast as possible for the requirement owners and their mission partners. And if I told you earlier, you know, on day one when you come into contracting, I need to get you up to speed as fast as possible. Some of these tools are investments that we can make that help get our professionals up to speed as fast as possible. And that’s part of that change agent mindset that we invest in as well. So another one of the tools that we’re really excited about, and this is a key result of our 24 key results or goals or initiatives, whatever code word you want to use.

But this year of the pricer and year of pricing, more specifically because we have pricers that their core competency is how to help, maybe the contracting and the program management team understand the nuances of that negotiation strategy. But pricers, like contracting professionals, are very high demand, low density. And so we are doubling down on investing in everyone to have more of a pricing competency. And those key results actually cut across our line of effort. One, for our people, our mission-focused business leaders, helping them build those core competencies, especially if they have maybe been outsourcing them to a pricer and then a pricer has gone on to another program.

So how do you take care of and help yourself? And then in the tools piece, we want to make sure that they have access to those cutting edge pricing tools. And I talked before with, you know, with other with other teams about how do I make sure that we are multiplying across the enterprise, those pricing tools that might be on one individual machine or at one individual installation, but how do we get that on on our digital acquisition transformation environment, which is our date? How do we get some of those pricing tools on the date? And we have to validate them and vet them and make sure that they have authority to operate on our systems for cybersecurity.

But I don’t want them to be on just one location. I mean, I love that they’re in one location and they help that team, but I want to be able to help more teams. And so we’ll be investing in some pricing tools and going out to our subject matter experts. And we have a team of about 55 professionals that are so excited to be able to extrapolate this out, and 9,000 mission-focused business leaders. That’s the goal, right?

To reach all of them and build 9,000 pricing competencies up, because that’ll help with our negotiations, that’ll help us execute more contracts, that will help us synergize with our program management counterparts on helping them understand those competency skills. And I’m really excited about that. Our line of effort three, which is innovative business processes, will also have a pricing component as a key result. And processes not just the tools but again understanding the process. And so we have a pricing center of excellence.

And it has existed before but it has eroded. So just as you said earlier, Soraya is like sometimes contracts forget to be closed out. And you bring in, again, subject matter experts to be able to do that because it’s a lost art. We also want to do the same thing for our pricing core competencies, to make sure that people can go to our center of excellence and say, okay, I need more help in this area. I need to do some homework here.

I’m not that strong on, say, ward fees or incentive approaches or how can I learn from a team that was really successful? So that’s the process piece. And then our last line of effort, which is about contingency contracting as a joint force. Again, a force multiplier which we’re all force multipliers in in acquisition and contracting specifically. But when you help others, not just the warfighters downrange, but our warfighters that are even in garrison CONUS wide, not just overseas, that core competency and operational contract support is again how we can multiply our core competencies, help others grow.

And then pay down kind of the debt of everybody doing it individually, which is, again, about that integrated contracting capability. So they will benefit from those pricing. Key results as well. So when you know, sometimes people think, well, I don’t have to learn about pricing. Again, I’m going to outsource it to this pricer.

But when you deploy down range, you are the pricer and you’re the contracting officer. So investing in recognizing that we need to invest in those skill sets and not just having a couple of phenomenal people, but having all 9,000 phenomenal contracting pricing experts and then sharing that across DOD. So really excited about our flight plan in 2025. And, and just I guess I could talk all day about that, but I don’t. I don’t know you have some other questions. Soraya.

Soraya Correa: 25:16

I’m excited for you and the flight plan. And it just goes down right, the right down the line of the things that I think are important in contracting, which is, first of all, getting the right people, making sure that they’re properly trained, that we invest in them, but also giving them the tools, the resources that they need to get the job done. And I’m excited to hear about incorporating that pricing into the instruction, because I do think that, you know, over the last few years, we’ve kind of lost some of that. In my early training in contracting, I had to know it all. I had to understand pricing.

I had to understand even how audits are done and why audits are done. So I think incorporating that knowledge into our folks, not because they’re going to do it every day, but because they need to understand it and be able to talk to it and go to the right places to get the information that they need. And I think pricing is extremely important, even from our engagement with industry, because if we better understand pricing, then we’re going to be able to better negotiate deals with industry and be able to talk to them about what we need, what we’re looking for, and how it impacts us. So I think it’s really exciting. And of course, you said my favorite word, innovation, right?

I love innovation and I love technology. You know, I come from that world. I’m fanatical about incorporating innovation, listening to our people about their ideas of how we can improve business processes, etc. and then of course, the contingency contracting. If everybody’s in it together, we can support each other. We’re going to get the job done.

One of my favorite phrases that I used to love to tell people, and I still do, is I never worked in a procurement office that was fully staffed or adequately staffed. So we have to share. We have to work together to achieve the mission objectives that we serve. So that’s fantastic. I know that your time is very limited, and I appreciate your generous offer to be here with us.

My question is, do you have any final thoughts you want to share with our audience before we close the podcast?

Maj. Gen. Alice Treviño: 27:08

So I think the final thought and I kind of interwoven him in between. I would like to talk about innovation, but I think instead I’ll talk about change And I’m a huge proponent of change agency. And I have to check myself all the time as well. It’s like, you can’t talk about change and not change yourself. And so we’re what I have learned the most is then I need to reflect.

Right. So this is a time of great change, but it’s not uncommon that we would be expected to change. And at the beginning of, you know, as just this week we, we learned that we would have a year-long continuing resolution. And that means that and oh, by the way, it’s not the first time we’ve had a 365-day continued resolution. I think I was looking at the numbers in the last.

We had one in 2011 and we had one in 2013. So people think it’s unique. It’s not unique, it’s just new to them. And so when that helps me think about change and to be able to reflect on where we’re going, not just because we have our new flight plan, but it’s really about how can we get through that change cycle as fast as possible to get to acceptance instead of us not just denying the change or trying to, you know, be angry about the change or trying to bargain ourselves out of the change. Being depressed that we have to change, but looking for those innovative opportunities and innovation is not just, you know, technology, right?

It’s about how to think differently. And when we are challenged we sometimes get anxious. But when we see those challenges as opportunity, it goes back to what you said, Soraya, is you’re so passionate about it, right? And we’re passionate about our people. And so that is the kind of closing thought for the day that I would like people to think about is what are the opportunities that I’m not seeing, even if I’m so used to the way that it was?

How can I change my perspective and not always be wanting the other person to change their perspective? Or how can I personally move myself and my team forward to be able to encounter that new changing dynamic or that new environment, or just that a fiscally responsible, you know, the fiscal priorities that are placed upon this? How do then I help move through them? And instead of seeing them as a liability or a limitation, how do I turn the table and make it an opportunity where I could see all the positive outcomes that now I will be able to navigate, help my team pilot through and see that positive, constructive, productive outcome on the end. And that’s an investment.

We often say I have to do this. I have to do this. But it really is about I get to do this. I get to make my path. I get to see what I didn’t like before.

There’s an acquisition rule or policy out there. Now is my chance to give that to my supervisor and have that go up the chain to be considered across all of the things that we might be able to change and take that opportunity. So it’s really about opportunity. Give yourself, you know, that two or three seconds to go through that grief cycle as fast as possible, but to get to acceptance and then change your diet, you know, change your approach to making it an opportunity that you can then influence in a positive manner. So that’s my closing thoughts to keep that momentum moving in a positive direction.

Soraya Correa: 31:20

We’ll get together, write a book because you’re saying the words that I always speak.  I always tell people. Don’t fight it. Don’t resist it. Embrace it. Find your opportunities within the change.

I totally agree with you and I appreciate those inspiring words because it is extremely important that especially today, and we’re going to go through change every single year, especially in the federal government.

Things are always changing. The, you know, the relationships out there change what enemies we confront. Everything is constantly changing. That’s the one thing we know. And so how we react to that change is extremely important.

And your words know no greater words of wisdom could have been spoken. Let’s find the opportunities. Let’s seize those opportunities. Let’s embrace that change and let’s appreciate it for what it is. And sometimes, you know, we don’t like we don’t like some of the outcomes that we get.

But you know what? Move on. Because tomorrow is yet another day. As I always tell folks. Well, ma’am, I know your time is extremely limited and I really appreciate you joining us.

Thank you so much for being with us today. I hope that you will reach out if there’s any way that we can help you out, not only as NIB, but also myself personally as a former fed. Happy to help out in any way that I can. But thank you so much for joining us today.

Maj. Gen. Alice Treviño: 32:31

Likewise.

Soraya Correa: 32:32

Thank you and thanks for all that you’re doing for all of our non-profit agencies and for everything that you’re doing to contribute to our national defense and our nation’s economy.

Outro: 32:43

Thank you. Major General Treviño, thank you so much for being with me today. We’ve been talking to US Air Force Major General Alice Trevino, deputy assistant secretary for contracting in the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics at the Pentagon. General Trevino, thank you again, and thank you to our listeners for more information on National Industries for the Blind, and to learn more about our important mission, visit NIB.org. Join us again next time on Mission Driven.

Thank you for listening to the Heard and Empowered podcast. Please make sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode. For more information, visit heardandempowered.org. That’s H-E-A-R-D-A-N-D-E-M-P-O-W-E-R-E-D dot O-R-G. Join us again next time.