PODCAST: Leading With Courage with Acquisition Experts Soraya Correa and Greg Giddens Season · Ep
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PODCAST: Leading With Courage with Acquisition Experts Soraya Correa and Greg Giddens Season · Ep
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AI has the potential to transform the way citizens interact with the government and the way agencies deliver services to citizens. In previous episodes we have heard from a number of Executive Branch leaders on the promises and potential risks of AI and how it's starting to transform government -- internal processes, service delivery, cybersecurity, and so on. The General Services Administration (GSA) will be in the forefront of this transformation as both a lighthouse account in the ap...
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AI has the potential to transform the way citizens interact with the government and the way agencies deliver services to citizens. In previous episodes we have heard from a number of Executive Branch leaders on the promises and potential risks of AI and how it's starting to transform government -- internal processes, service delivery, cybersecurity, and so on. The General Services Administration (GSA) will be in the forefront of this transformation as both a lighthouse account in the application of AI and also as the lead arm for government to acquire AI technologies.
Today we will be joined by Larry Allen, a seasoned veteran in the world of government procurement and contracting, who was recently appointed Associate Administrator for Governmentwide Policy and Chief Acquisition Officer at the General Services Administration.
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June 1, 2026
Host James-Christian Blockwood interviews Soraya Correa, President and CEO of the National Industries for the Blind and former Chief Procurement Officer at the US Department of Homeland Security, and Greg Giddens, of Potomac Ridge Consulting, and former Chief Acquisition Officer at the US Department of Veterans Affairs, on how federal acquisition enables mission outcomes beyond compliance. Giddens describes procurement as a strategic bridge between government missions and pr...
May 18, 2026
James-Christian Blockwood discusses U.S. Office of Personnel Management's modernization of federal HR and retirement IT systems with OPM’s Rebecca Ayers and Academy Fellow Brodi Fontenot. Building on a 2021 academy report urging congressional funding to modernize OPM systems, they describe the administration’s goal to build a merit-based workforce and modernize people management through the Federal HR 2.0 initiative. Key elements include moving agencies onto a mandatory single cor...
May 4, 2026
Host James-Christian Blockwood talks with Academy Fellow and McGeorge School of Law Professor Clark Kelso and American Enterprise Institute Senior Fellow Adam White about why public agencies struggle and what the executive branch does in response. They discuss how checks and balances slow action and make errors hard to undo, while polarization and congressional dysfunction push presidents toward unilateral action, creating separation-of-powers conflicts and court intervention. The conve...