A LITTLE PERSONALITY CAN GO A LONG WAY
T CHRISTINA LAWSON
COMMAND/ORGANIZATION: Program Executive Office for Missiles and Space, Strategic and Operational Rockets and Missiles Project Office
TITLE: Acquisition analyst YEARS OF SERVICE IN WORKFORCE: 10
DAWIA CERTIFICATIONS: Level III in contracting
EDUCATION: B.S. in business manage- ment, Athens State University
AWARDS: Civilian Service Commendation Medal (2019), Civilian Service Achieve- ment Medal (2020), STORM Employee of the Quarter (Oct.–Dec. 2021)
he decisions Christina Lawson makes have significant outcomes. Her role as an acquisition professional supporting the Field Artillery Launchers (FAL) Product Office portfolio involves collaboration with numerous teammates from across the Strategic and Operational Rockets and Missiles (STORM)
Project Office and Army Contracting Command-Redstone Arsenal, Alabama, to develop the documentation for successful contract awards.
But when describing her job to others, Lawson tends to put it into more simplistic terms. “I write contracts for huge trucks that fire rockets and missiles and blow stuff up,” she tells them. A description to which, she said, the response is either “HOW COOL!” or “Oh, I see...” It all just depends on the audience.
“Honestly, there’s not a way to make writing a contract that is hundreds of pages long sound super fun and exciting,” Lawson said of her role as an analyst. So she resorts to what she calls the “elevator speech”—the few lines that you give to someone trying to make small talk in an elevator. She’s found that this approach, which she said she is “still working on” mastering, can be effective in almost any situation—particularly in breaking the ice or when trying to use fewer words to explain something more complex or difficult to understand.
Lawson began her government career as a summer-hire in 2010, where she scanned large volumes of files, particularly contracts, into digital copies to cut down on the paper copies of massive documents. “I had no idea at the time that those very contracts would be the type of documents I would eventually work with,” she said.
Lawson continued that following year as a cooperative student—taking classes toward her undergraduate degree while working full time—in the Precision Fires Rocket and Missile Systems Project Office (now the STORM Project Office), directly supporting the program manager for the FAL Product Office. “I didn’t have a background in a specific skill set, although I was taking classes towards my Level I Defense Acquisition Work- force Improvement Act Program Management certification,” she said. “Te opportunity to move to the acquisition division within the same project office presented itself, so I jumped on the chance to pursue something new.” Tis marked the beginning of her journey with the Army Acquisition Workforce as an acquisition analyst.
“At the ripe age of 22, I was drawn to the professionalism I saw in the individuals who represented the acquisition division. Te expertise and confidence they displayed in public forums was something I wanted to possess myself,” she said, adding that she never would have made it this far without a mentorship.
“I had so many formal [and] informal mentors that I relied on day in and day out for the first few years of my acquisition career and still do from time to time. Tey were my
108 Army AL&T Magazine Summer 2022
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