Role includes ensuring opportunities for SDVOB vendors SYRACUSE — Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh recently appointed Laura Spence to assistant director of purchase for the city government. Spence is responsible for overseeing the procurement of all materials, services, and construction needs. She will also create and implement procurement processes to comply with City of Syracuse ordinances and […]
Role includes ensuring opportunities for SDVOB vendors
SYRACUSE — Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh recently appointed Laura Spence to assistant director of purchase for the city government.
Spence is responsible for overseeing the procurement of all materials, services, and construction needs. She will also create and implement procurement processes to comply with City of Syracuse ordinances and advise on updates to relevant policies and procedures.
Spence will work in close collaboration with the city’s Division of Equity Compliance and Social Impact (DESCI) to ensure upcoming contracting opportunities are open and accessible to prospective minority and women-owned business enterprise (MWBE) and service-disabled veteran-owned business (SDVOB) vendors. Her work will increase clarity, transparency, standardization, and accountability around procurement processes to reduce the contracting timeline, lower costs, increase competition, expand supplier diversity opportunities, and improve the results of contracted services, the mayor’s office said in a mid-August announcement.
Previously, Spence worked for the City of Syracuse as a social-impact analyst for the Division of Equity Compliance and Social Impact. There, she devoted most of her time to leading and collaborating with others to further the city’s goals of creating an equal and fair environment for women and minorities. In this role, Spence also spearheaded the implementation of the Spend Analysis module in B2G Now, a software program that enables local governments to accurately track and analyze expenditures related to minority-and women-owned entities to promote transparency and equitable spending practices.
Spence has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Ave Maria University in Florida and a master’s degree in integral economic development management from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
