ACQUISITION CONTRACT BRIEFING


Cornelius, right, briefs INSCOM Acquisition Center staff members, from left, Sgt. 1st Class John Wysocki, Maj. Ryan Ocampo and Betty Jarman. (Photo by Ron Young, INSCOM Public Affairs)


Among her mentors is Irvin Bonus, her former team leader and now team leader for Regional Contracting Office – Hawaii, part of the 413th Contracting Support Brigade (CSB). “He is an excellent mentor who challenged me to learn the Fed- eral Acquisition Regulation [FAR] and understand the importance of contract- ing,” said Cornelius. She took that advice to heart, earning a certification of federal contract management from the National Contract Management Association along with her Level III DAWIA [Defense Acquisition Workforce


Improvement


Act] certification in contracting as a way to better understand the FAR.


Col. Kevin Nash, her commander in the 413th CSB, also has been an important part of her professional development.


“His leadership and mentorship were key in showing me what a military acquisition professional should be,” said Cornelius. Nash helped Cornelius master operational contract support and become a valuable business adviser to the com- mand, she said, skills that improved her ability to write contracts as well as to brief and provide input at the senior level.


Perfecting those skills and building a solid foundation are vital to success, Cornelius


noted, as is stepping outside one’s com- fort zone. “Contracting is evolving, so don’t be discouraged if you don’t grasp everything,” she said. “Challenge your- self each day to learn something new and assist with unfamiliar requirements. Learning opportunities


are endless in


this career, so take advantage of them.” Finally, she added, “Take pride in your career and learn everything you can to be able to understand why acquisition is a mission enabler.”


Cornelius’ military career started right after high school. Following the path of her father—“my biggest hero,” she said— she joined the Army in 1999 as a private. She left active duty and earned a bach- elor’s degree, and returned to active duty to attend U.S. Army Officer Candidate School (OCS).


Following OCS, Cornelius spent seven years as a chemical officer. In late 2011, she was working in the Operational Pro- tection Directorate for Eighth Army and was assigned to a team researching ways to measure and reduce warfighter exposure to radiation. “As a result of our work, we identified and fielded radiation detection equipment to subordinate commands to allow for low-level radiation monitoring


of more than 28,000 service members across the Korean Peninsula,” Cornelius said. Tat assignment also gave her the opportunity to meet people


from the


acquisition community, “and I became very interested in that career field,” she said, “as a way to mitigate threats and provide products viable to the field.” She transitioned to the Acquisition Corps a year later.


“I have been exposed to many different levels of acquisition to understand why what we do is invaluable, and I’ve had the opportunity to work with different services’ components in multiple coun- tries—and I have found every minute of it rewarding,” she said.


Maintaining mission focus is the most challenging part of her work. “Some- times the mission exceeds the existing capabilities,” she said. “We face chal- lenges in handling all the requirements in the time frame requested for each mis- sion.” Te solution? Old-fashioned hard work, according to Cornelius: “longer hours when they’re needed to be sure we complete the requirements needed to enable the mission.”


—MS. SUSAN L. FOLLETT


ASC.ARMY.MIL


17


ACQUISITION


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