Karen DaPonte Thonton
Director
Procurement Round Table

Karen DaPonte Thornton is a research fellow with the Acquisition Innovation Research Center, an adjunct professor at the George Washington University Law School, and a director on the Procurement Round Table, where she serves on the Acquisition Workforce committee. She brings a deep understanding of the federal and military workforce and its needs to the Alliance. She previously served as Counsel on the staff of the Committee on Armed Services for the U.S. House of Representatives, where she was responsible for legislation and oversight related to acquisition policy and successfully negotiated hundreds of provisions in the annual National Defense Authorization Act.Before returning to public service, Ms. Thornton was director of the Government Procurement Law Program at the George Washington University Law School (GW Law), where she launched the Master of Studies in Law in Government Procurement degree for non-attorneys and the Government Procurement Law Concentration for JD students.

Prior to her appointment as director, Ms. Thornton was a member of the GW Law Legal Research & Writing faculty and taught first-year and upper-level courses. She began her legal career as an Army JAG officer and procurement attorney in the Office of the Chief Counsel at Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and has served in the Office of the General Counsel at the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Ms. Thornton earned her BA in Political Science from Providence College, where she was a 3-year ROTC scholarship recipient and Distinguished Military Graduate, her JD from the Georgetown University Law Center, and her LLM in Government Procurement Law from GW Law.

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Ashley Harris Whaley
‍Founder
Disability Reframed

Ashley Harris Whaley directs adult programs and research at the Cerebral Palsy Foundation. Ashley has a lifetime of lived experience as a disabled woman with spastic diplegia cerebral palsy. She is a member of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and is a board-certified Speech-Language Pathologist.
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Ashley holds a Master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders from Western Carolina University. Ashley is a freelance writer, established public speaker, and online educator. She is the founder of Disability Reframed, a collaborative online learning community that works to dismantle antiquated attitudes toward disability and rebuild them by changing perspectives through education and conversation.
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Her research interests include knowledge translation, accessible technology, sexual, reproductive and maternal healthcare for women with disabilities, as well as lifespan care for cerebral palsy. Her writing has appeared in Refinery29 and TripAdvisor, and her debut children's book was published in May 2023
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Andrew Houghton
‍Founder and CEO
Disability Inclusion Solutions

Andrew Houghton is a global disability expert who has used a wheelchair since a 1986 motorcycle accident resulted in paraplegia. He is the founder and CEO of Disability Inclusion Solutions (DIS) a Certified Disability Owned Business Enterprise specializing helping organizations make their sites and buildings more accessible, inclusive, and safer by removing physical and social barriers. Since launching in 2017, Andrew has helped global clients implement universal design strategies into the design of over 300 projects across the United States and in 30 countries.

Andrew has also served as a consultant on disability issues and programs around the world and has served in the public sector as a presidential and gubernatorial appointee. Andrew’s previous service includes six years as chairperson of the U.S. AbilityOne Commission, where he was elected by his peers to an unprecedented three terms as chairman. He was also the first private citizen and the first person with a disability to chair the Commission in its 75-year history until his service ended on July 14, 2011. His major accomplishments as Chairperson included the Quality Work Environment Initiative (QWE) designed to enhance employee productivity and foster opportunities for advancement and outplacement into community-based employment opportunities.

Andrew has also served as president on numerous boards for local and national nonprofit organizations, including his previous role as president of National Disability Institute (NDI) with the mission to help build a better economic future for adults and youth with disabilities. He has extensive public speaking experience, has been featured in numerous print articles and appeared as a guest on broadcast and cable television shows.


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Kim Knackstedt
Principal Consultant
Unlock Access

Kim Knackstedt is the principal consultant of Unlock Access, LLC and brings more than a decade of accessibility and disability policy experience to her work. She previously served in disability policy positions in Congress and the White House and brings experience as a person with chronic illnesses to her accessibility and policy perspectives.
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Kim’s experiences span education, government, and nonprofit sectors, with strengths in policy writing; diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility; accessibility program implementation; strategic visioning and planning; project management; public speaking; and coalition building.Prior to launching Unlock Access, LLC, Kim was the Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Public Policy Fellow, serving on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in 2016. She then served as the disability policy advisor for Chairman Bobby Scott on the Committee on Education and Labor in the U.S. House of Representatives. Next, she was the senior disability policy advisor for Senator Patty Murray on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee in the U.S. Senate.  
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In January 2021, Kim was appointed as the first ever director of disability policy for the Domestic Policy Council for the Biden–Harris Administration. Following her experience in the White House, Kim was a Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, Director of the Disability Economic Justice team, and Director of the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative. Kim received her Bachelor of Education in special education and elementary education from Gonzaga University, Master of Science in Education in special education from the University of Kansas, and Ph.D. in special education and policy from the University of Kansas.
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Art Spring
Senior Account Executive
Defense Health Cherokee Federal

Arthur (Art) Spring manages the Cherokee Portfolio of Prime Contracts supporting the Military Health System (MHS), which includes programs supporting the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs (ASD/HA), the US Defense Health Agency (DHA), Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), the US Army Medical Command (MEDCOM), and the US Army Research and Development Command (MRDC). At Cherokee, Art works collaboratively with Growth, Operations, FAST Team members and executives in developing a deep and rich portfolio of health IT, clinical & policy support, research &; development, health operations, public health and related pursuits. 
Prior to Cherokee, Art served as a Gartner Strategic Advisor to MEDCOM Leadership at the HQ, Regional Command and MTF-level in the establishment and transference of IT resources to DHA. 

Previous professional roles include VP and Program Manager for SAIC overseeing their US Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) business division which included management of their software development lifecycle (SDLC) team which built and maintained the bulk of the IRS automated collection systems. He was also the founder and President of Measurable Results, LLC, an efficiency and optimization consultancy serving the largest U.S. commercial banks that pioneered unique ‘share in savings’ contracts that were tied to specific targeted annual bank management objectives. 
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Art holds a B.A. Degree in Liberal Arts from the Pennsylvania State University with an emphasis on North and Central American Indian Archaeology and Anthropology. He is also certified in Six Sigma quality management and multiple sales methodology processes, including as a certified instructor in Miller-Heiman Strategic Selling and Large Account Management Process methodologies.

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Michael Eric Wooten 
Board of Directors
Strayer University

The Honorable Michael E. Wooten is a seasoned leader in public administration and is a SeniorPartner at Wooten &; Associates Experts in Lakeridge, Virginia. Dr. Wooten's expertise significantly influences economic development, particularly in education, workforce strategy, and procurement. Having served as Administrator for Federal Procurement Policy from August 2019 to January 2021, he remains active in national procurement policy matters as a member of the Procurement Roundtable. Dr. Wooten has held roles in procurement education, including Professor of Contract Management at the Defense Acquisition University and Adjunct Professor of Public Procurement at the University of the District of Columbia. Additionally, as an education policy leader, he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Community Colleges at theU.S. Department of Education and was Chairman of the Northern Virginia Community College board.

Currently, Dr. Wooten holds board appointments at the Virginia Community CollegeSystem and Strayer University. Recognized for his achievements, he was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and the National Contract Management Association. Dr. Wooten holds a doctorate in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania, a Master of Arts in Human Development from The George WashingtonUniversity, a Master of Science in Management from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and aMaster of Arts from Norwich University.


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Robb Wong 
CEO
Fedsolve LLC

Robb Wong is the CEO of FedSolve, LLC, a management consulting company for small businesses. He recently served as the leading United States advocate for small business government contractors as the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Associate Administrator (government contracts policy) from 2017-2020. Appointed by the White House, he worked extensively with senior leaders in Congress, DoD, and other industries to increase opportunities for small business government contractors. In that period, he issued a multitude of new regulations; implemented legislation that enabled the U.S. to exceed federal goals for small business utilization; and also increased prime contract opportunities by 34% ($133+ billion in prime contracts; and $90 billion in sub-contracts).

Robb’s influence and understanding of SBA and 8a is unique. He worked with one of the first 8a companies in the U.S. while in high school and college. From 1987-1997 he was an SBA attorney at HQ where he wrote the 8a Program eligibility regulations. From 1997-2017 he founded FedSolve through which he owned, led, and advised a multitude of successful SBA-certified small business contractors. For 10 years he helped to teach “Entrepreneurship for Lawyers” at Georgetown Law; and participated in Georgetown’s Business School’s entrepreneurship programs.


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