Tera Lawson

My Role in Procurement Services

I am the Training, Development, and Outreach Coordinator for Procurement Services.  I attempt to break down and help our colleagues understand how to navigate what are sometimes complex processes and requirements, as well as how changes to processes or procedures will impact them.

Having worked in an academic department for over 13 years before moving to Procurement Services, I understand the need to have information at your fingertips that is easy to access and understand.  I continue to look for ways to provide resources like the Procurement and Payment Methods Webpage and the Spend Categories by Commodity Area Webpage for our colleagues.

Individuals can contact me if something that has been communicated isn’t clear on the website, in a mass email, in a presentation, or in our newsletter.  I’ll work with our Procurement Services Team members and see what we can do about it!  

Highlighting a Recent Project or Accomplishment 

In addition to getting information out to our colleagues and developing resources, I have collaborated with several other departments and units to streamline or smooth out processes for employees in ways that benefit everyone. 

One of the processes we were able to streamline was the verification of goods and services required to be in compliance with the OMB Uniform Guidance Requirement for Certification of Goods and Services.  Collaborating with the Grants Finance Specialists allowed us to reduce the number of verifications that PIs are asked to provide and allowed us to complete the verification at the time the items were invoiced, which also allowed us the opportunity to assure any concerns with the items or services were resolved prior to the payment being processed.  This collaboration and streamlined process was highlighted in the Winter 2023 edition of this newsletter, Spotlighting Recent Successes: Collaboration with GFS = Less Verifications Needed from PI.