For immediate release - May 20, 2005
(DALLAS) - Working with
minority contractors, promoting the Dallas County Community Colleges
diversity business program and keeping business flowing are a
matter-of-course for Paula Spivey when she comes to work each day at the
DCCC District Service Center in Mesquite. Spivey, coordinator of DCCC’s
diversity business program, likes the challenge and enjoys interacting
with business owners and community leaders as part of her regular
routine.
Those efforts - which have almost doubled DCCC’s use of
minority suppliers for the system from $4.7 million to $9.2 million in
contracts over the past four years - have earned Spivey the admiration
of her colleagues in both business and education. They also brought her
recognition this month from the U.S. Small Business Administration as
the region’s Minority Small Business Champion of the Year.
Bill
Weddle, director of risk management for the Small Business Development
Center at the Bill J. Priest Institute for Economic Development (part of
DCCC), nominated Spivey for the award because “… [s]he goes well beyond
her job description to ensure that everyone has an equal opportunity to
compete for business with Dallas County Community Colleges. Paula
always looks for potential contractors in areas that are unserved or
underserved by minority contractors. And her care and concern spill
beyond that point - she also introduces minority contractors to
diversity business people at other companies and assists them with
finding additional opportunities.”
Spivey is responsible for the
effective management and administration of the supplier diversity
program for DCCC, one of the largest institutions of higher education in
Texas. In addition to her work with minority contractors, Spivey’s
other duties include serving as a liaison with external business
assistance organizations, ethnic chambers of commerce and minority/women
business councils; developing departmental policies and procedures in
keeping with governing law; managing a budget; designing collateral
materials; and preparing and presenting internal and external training
programs.
The award recipient has spent the past 10 years as a
project manager for DCCC with increasing levels of responsibility in the
areas of supplier diversity, procurement and facilities
management. Spivey has almost doubled the use of minority suppliers for
the system by designing and implementing M/WBE training programs, new
advertising strategies and a diversity business program Web site.
Spivey’s
training programs have enabled M/WBEs to better understand both the
process and procedures for submitting more effective bids, and the new
advertising strategies and Web site have provided more information that
the multi-ethnic business community in Dallas County could use. “Now
more minority- and women-owned businesses in our area are bidding on
DCCCD projects,” added Weddle.
Spivey, who holds a master’s
degree in business administration from Texas Woman’s University and a
bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Texas at
Arlington, previously served DCCC as project coordinator for the
facilities department. She also has announced her plans to join
Parkland’s diversity office this summer.
A member of the Dallas
Alliance for Business Development, Spivey serves on the Super Fair
Tradeshow planning committee, its construction subcommittee and the
vendor outreach subcommittee. She also is a member of the Dallas/Fort
Worth Minority Business Development Council and serves on its
certification committee, E-Awards committee and Access Tradeshow
steering committee. She is an advocate for M/WBEs in Austin as a public
policy participant, and she volunteers her time for the Hispanic
Contractors Association, the Black Contractors Association and CAAPCO - a
coalition of professional and community organizations. Spivey also
volunteers as a job coach for Jacob’s Ladder, a program which helps
people who currently are on public assistance programs to enter or
re-enter the work force.
The Dallas native is serving her fourth
year as secretary of the board of directors for the North Central Texas
Regional Certification Agency and as chair of the NCTRCA membership ad
hoc and nominations committees.
Spivey previously received the
Women Who Mean Business Award in 2003 and the Best of the Decade -
Supplier Diversity - Mcompany Award, also in 2003. She was nominated for
Corporate Advocate of the Year and Corporate Volunteer of the Year
awards in 2004 by the Black Contractors Association.
Press contact: Ann Hatch, 214-860-2478