Congratulations to our 2022 Scholarship Recipients!
NCMA DC is honored to recognize the recipients of our 2022 Outstanding Academic Achievement Award (OAAA). Once again, the selection committee had many highly qualified candidates, making deciding on the winners very difficult. The following deserving students were selected:
FIRST PLACE: Major Sean Zehtab is a Judge Advocate currently serving as the Chief Contracts Law Counsel at United States Central Command. He is a 2022 graduate of the Government Procurement Law LL.M. program at George Washington University Law School. During the academic year, he externed at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Office of the General Counsel, Contracts and Acquisition Integrity Practice Group.
Previous military assignments include Deputy Legal Counsel and Litigation Fellow, Office of the Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Contracts Trial Attorney, U.S. Army Legal Services Agency; Battalion Judge Advocate, 5th Special Forces Group; Command Judge Advocate, 101st Airborne Division; and Chief of Client Services for Combined Joint Task Force 101 while deployed to Afghanistan.
Other assignments include positions at Fort Campbell, KY, Fort Polk, LA, and prior military service as an enlisted armor crewman in Germany and Iraq. His previous higher education includes an LL.M. in Military Law from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School, a J.D. from Nebraska College of Law, and a B.S. in Developmental Biology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Major Zehtab lives in Tampa, Florida, with his family, including his wife, Josie, and children, Sonia and Ellis.
SECOND PLACE: Meredith Johnson is a part-time Master of Studies in Law (MSL) student at the George Washington University (GW) Law School’s Government Procurement program. In 2022, she completed her first year of studies while working full-time as a contracting officer for the newly established Defense Health Agency (DHA) Central Markets Contracting Division. In this role, she leads a team of civilian and contractor employees assisting DHA with its mission to transition thousands of medical contracts from the individual military services to the new DHA contracting divisions.
Meredith has over a decade of experience in government procurement, previously serving as a contracting officer for the Navy, the Army, and the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA). She sought out the GW Law program to further develop her skills in contract development, negotiation, and administration.
As a military spouse, Meredith also serves as an informal mentor for other spouses attempting to navigate employment challenges in the government procurement field. She hopes to eventually establish a formal network within the Department of Defense procurement community to promote military spouse career stability.
THIRD PLACE: Corey L. Richards was one of eight civilian employees selected by the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement (ODASA(P)) to participate in the Army’s first cohort for the Master of Studies in Law (MSL) Government Procurement Law Program at The George Washington University (GW) Law School. In May of 2022, she completed her degree with a 3.81 grade point average.
While pursuing her degree, Richards authored two articles on procurement ethics for publication in the Public Contract Law Journal and the Journal of Contract Management. After completing her degree, she wrote an article on her experience at GW Law School for publication in Army AL&T Magazine. All three articles will be published in Fall 2022. Additionally, Richards was selected as the 2022 National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) Annual Conference Scholarship awardee.
For the past 13 years, Richards has worked in contracting as a civilian employee of the Army. Her career began in 2009 as a Contract Specialist intern for Army Contracting Command at the Detroit Arsenal. In 2014, she was appointed as a Contracting Officer with unlimited warrant authority, working on complex service and major weapon systems contracts. Since 2019, Richards has served as the Contracting Advisor for the Next Generation Combat Vehicles Cross-Functional Team within Army Futures Command, where she supports the Army’s Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle and other programs.