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Procurement Month has begun and we are excited to celebrate with our procurement community! The Copper Chapter of NIGP is proud to display our Proclamation that March is Procurement Month and that March 13th is Procurement Professionals' Day! We can't wait to hear how everyone is celebrating!

Through the November 2022 testing window, there are now 997 leaders in 45 States who have earned their NIGP-CPP. Sixty of those leaders practice public procurement in the Grand Canyon State – making Arizona tied for the third largest contingent of NIGP Certified Procurement Professionals who impact their communities by mastering the competencies that align with the research-based Public Procurement Framework. Eleven Arizonans earned their NIGP-CPP in 2022:
 Tyra Bell - Buckeye
 Leslie DeReche - Apache Junction
 Kennie Downing - Sierra Vista
 Dana Garr - Peoria
 Jennifer Hefley - Peoria
 Karie Ingles - Phoenix
 Helen Lee - Sierra Vista
 Wendy Springborn - Surprise
 Jonathan Thatcher - Phoenix
 Carmen Volk Felix - Sierra Vista
 Natanya Wilson - Phoenix

Marcheta is a passionate advocate for the procurement profession, she possesses a broad and deep range of expertise in numerous areas of public procurement best practices, professional development and leadership, and overall procurement transformation.
She currently serves as Co-Chair of the NIGP Mentorship Committee and encourages peers to consider being a mentor in NIGP's Mentorship program. Marcheta credits her success (over 30+ years in the procurement profession) to the mentors she's had the privilege of connecting with and the experiences they've shared.
She is the former Director of Procurement at the City of Tucson, leading one of the country's most highly acclaimed procurement organizations. In 2021, Marcheta become the President of NIGP Code and Consulting Services. She's the recipient of NIGP's highest honor - the Albert H. Hall Memorial Award and has served on dozens of task forces and committees in her 30 years of volunteer leadership.

Leaders Edge was a transformative program in my career and personal life. My intention was to learn more about leadership styles, what I came away with was so much more. I met other professional procurement leaders from across the United States and Canada all sharing their moments of leadership, their struggles and doing the toughest thing that I think some of us have to do….ask for help.
We were a group of newbies to seasoned professionals all trying to help each other and understand how to better ourselves. Lourdes Coss led us through zoom sessions by leading off with conversation topics but really let us take off and figure it out within our groups. The overall program had close to 30 participants, and we were assigned smaller groups, Go Fantastic Five! I know our groups became more tightknit to the point where we emailed each other and also rooted each other on when we saw articles about each other. The highlight was at NIGP Forum 2022 when a few of us met in person!

The Pima County Procurement Department has earned the 27th Annual Achievement of Excellence in Procurement® (AEP) Award for 2022 from the National Procurement Institute, awardInc. (NPI).

This is the 18th consecutive year that the Procurement Department has won the prestigious award.

The AEP Award is given to public and non-profit organizations that obtain a high application score based on standardized criteria by demonstrating a commitment to procurement excellence. The AEP is awarded annually to recognize innovation, professionalism, e-procurement, productivity and leadership in the procurement function.

The AEP program encourages the development of excellence as well as continued organizational improvement for a department to earn the award annually.

“I’m very proud of our Pima County Procurement team in being one of just 10 agencies in Arizona and one of only 36 counties in the United States and Canada to receive the award in 2022,” Procurement Director Terri Spencer.

Copper Chapter is pleased to announce our Manager of the Year and Buyer of the Year Awards.