Marshall Space Flight Center's Small Business Office had team members win Small Business Advocates Awards, a Small Business Industry Award, and the Small Business Administrator’s Cup for the fiscal year 2022.
By Jessica Barnett
Communication, sharing, and working together are key ingredients in most partnerships, and that includes NASA’s partnerships with small businesses. At NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, a team of individuals work each day to foster and support these relationships through the center’s Small Business Office.
This dedication and effort during fiscal year 2022 earned them recognition at the agency level, with team members winning Small Business Advocates Awards, a Small Business Industry Award, and the Small Business Administrator’s Cup. It’s the seventh time Marshall has won the Cup, which honors a center’s significant contributions to NASA’s small business program and recognizes the successful, innovative practices used to promote small business participation in NASA initiatives.
“It was a big win,” said David Brock, who serves as Marshall’s small business specialist and manages NASA’s Mentor-Protégé Program. “A lot of that is attributed to the team we have. It’s all about the program, and it’s all about the team. That’s what makes us strong. We have a team that’s focused on promoting the program across all of Marshall.”
Brock said the SBO accomplishes this through robust outreach and in-reach efforts, frequently interacting with industries and companies, and maximizing the opportunities available for all involved. During FY22, this included adding quarterly joint counseling sessions for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions, as well as hosting partnership and alliance meetings to share information and help grow relationships between companies, colleges, and more.
“It was a very good year for us, no doubt,” Brock said.
As a result of the team’s success, Brock was named NASA’s Small Business Specialist of the Year. Paul Johnson, who works in Marshall’s Safety and Mission Assurance Directorate and helps companies stay informed about SBO initiatives, was named Technical Person of the Year.
A third award for Mentor-Protégé Agreement of the Year was presented to Boeing and Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, who worked together to achieve 11 milestone tasks in support of the Space Launch System program at Marshall while also providing valuable guidance and training for students.
“When you have a success story like that between Boeing and Southern University, that award’s important, because it allows those students at the university to engage, to get hands-on experience, and oftentimes, those students will continue on and end up in jobs working for those companies,” Brock said.
This, combined with the center SBO’s success in other areas, is what ultimately led to Marshall receiving the FY 2022 NASA Small Business Administrator’s Cup. Marshall Deputy Director Joseph Pelfrey praised the Marshall team for earning it a seventh time.
“It truly is a testament to the center’s dedication to partnering with small businesses in and around the Huntsville community,” Pelfrey said. “We know that partnerships strengthen our center and help further our mission back to the Moon and beyond.”
Marshall is the only NASA center to win the Cup more than three times, having previously won in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2019. To learn more about the Center’s award-winning Small Business Program, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/centers/marshall/about/business.html
To learn more about NASA’s Office of Small Business Programs, and to see this year’s awards ceremony, visit:
https://www.nasa.gov/osbp/highlights
Molly Porter
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala.
256-424-5158
molly.a.porter@nasa.gov