NAEP New England Tentative Agenda

A Panel moderated by Brad Pryba (NAEP) with panelists Jim Wise (Northeastern), Lisa Westgate (LN Westgate LLC/Northeastern), Mary Dukakis (Tufts), and Michael LaGrassa (UMass Dartmouth)
 

Join this session, presented by Bridgewater State College and UMass, to explore typical strategies for managing procurement spending and how it can be blended into a new comprehensive model. Bridgewater will outline their department-centered model, while UMass will describe its category management approach. The session will wrap with UMass sharing a case study on project-managing a commencement portfolio, which borrowed elements from their colleagues' system at Bridgewater to create a hybrid model. Gain valuable knowledge to optimize your procurement processes and make more informed spending decisions.

With tightening NIH budgets and rising costs from global tariffs, procurement professionals and researchers are under growing pressure to do more with less. This panel brings together procurement leaders and scientists from across the research landscape to share real-world strategies for controlling spend, reducing waste, and maintaining scientific momentum in challenging times. Topics will include creative sourcing tactics, collaborative budgeting between finance and research teams, and approaches to minimizing tail spend.

It’s not a typo. When you see “co” in any word, it means you can’ t do it alone. So, let’ s lean into the collaboration required in public procurement. Take charge of what you can control to foster a collaborative culture. As a procurement professional, you have a lot of demands, and your end-user teams don’t always share the same priorities. However, procuring the needs of your agency is challenging enough without this shared understanding. Join forces with your internal customers to become better buyers together. This session provides insights to sidestep common communication pitfalls and achieve mutual success.