Ms. Celis has served the Department of Defense (DoD) for over 30 years; starting at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from 1988 until 2004, where she held a variety of positions in financial management, personnel management, program analysis/management, computer information systems development, and training. It was during this period in her career that she became involved with the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)/Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs. Next, she served as the U.S. Army SBIR Program Manager from 2004-2008, where she developed and successfully implemented several program and system modernization initiatives. For the last eleven years, she served as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) SBIR/STTR Program Manager where she focused on creating an environment that considers small business concerns as a primary source of innovative solutions. She recently joined the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering’s Small Business and Technology Partnerships Office to manage the DoD SBIR/STTR programs.
Ms. Celis holds a Bachelor of Science in Management and Computer Information Systems from Park University, and a Master of Public Administration from American University.