Lacy Perkins, FCCM, FCCN, PMP®
Lacy Perkins, FCCM, FCCN, PMP® is an accomplished procurement and grants administrator with over a decade of experience supporting state agencies across Florida. She graduated from Florida State University in 2011 with a degree in actuarial science, initially aspiring to become an actuary for the state. Choosing to prioritize family while leveraging her natural people skills, Lacy has built a diverse career centered on customer service and problem-solving. From advising students in the registrar’s office at Tallahassee Community College to managing a pharmacy call center, she consistently gravitated toward roles that allowed her to help others and resolve challenges efficiently.
Inspired by her mother’s 30-year career with the State of Florida, Lacy transitioned to public service, starting with auditing and eventually moving into procurement and purchasing. Since 2014, she has accumulated 12 years of procurement experience across multiple state agencies, including the Department of Corrections, Department of Health, and Department of Financial Services. Her work focuses on strategic sourcing, contract management, and compliance, ensuring that state resources are used effectively while supporting operational needs. Lacy’s dedication to accountability, efficiency, and collaborative leadership has made her a trusted professional across the public sector.
For the past three years, Lacy has served as a Procurement and Grants Administrator with the Florida Digital Service. In this role, she oversees all purchasing, contracts, and vendor compliance for the agency, and manages a local cybersecurity grant program, providing software to local governments with limited funding to protect against cyber threats. One of her proudest professional accomplishments is earning her Project Management Professional (PMP®) certification, which has enabled her to apply structured project management principles to her procurement and contract work. Lacy’s combination of technical expertise, leadership, and commitment to helping others continues to make a meaningful impact across the state of Florida.
• Project Management Professional (PMP)
• Florida Certified Contract Negotiator (FCCN)
• Florida Certified Contract Manager (FCCM)
• Florida State University - BS, Actuarial Science
• Tallahassee State College - AA, General Transfer
• Employee of the Month
• NASPO (National Association of State Procurement Officers)
• Team Mom for baseball teams
• PTSA volunteer
• School field trip volunteer
What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to working hard, being ethical, and always doing the right thing. I think it can be easy to pass things off and not go into details, but I believe you should always dig in and go that extra mile to make sure everything is correct, because it makes a difference in the end. I've also been fortunate to have incredible mentors along the way, particularly Iman Washington, who was my first supervisor when I started with the state of Florida in auditing and who also worked in procurement, and Truby Bodiford, who was an assistant chief at one of the agencies where I worked in procurement. Both have been very influential in my career. My biggest professional achievement has been obtaining my PMP certification, which was really rewarding. It's very limited in the amount of people that get sent to the training, and even fewer actually get certified. Being able to learn from that and apply everything I learned from managing projects to managing every purchase and contract has been invaluable. I can apply those principles across the board in everything I do.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say to work hard and be ethical and do the right thing. I think it can be easy to pass things off and not go into details and not drive from an ethical perspective and make sure that everything ticks and ties and all the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted. But I would say to always dig in and always go that extra mile to make sure everything is correct, because it makes a difference in the end. Even when people don't understand all the nuances and the details of what you're doing, continue to drive forward and do the work behind the scenes. You'll be successful in the end, and it'll all pay off. Don't feel discouraged, because yes, it is difficult and it is hard, but just stay with it.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I would say the biggest challenge is effective communication and ensuring that everyone is properly informed, because there are so many nuances in our field that many people don't understand. This is probably the biggest struggle that procurement staff face. Especially in the state of Florida, we have one of the most stringent procurement laws, and if you do procurement in the state of Florida, you can pretty much do procurement anywhere because we're so stringent. We have the Sunshine law, which means that every procurement we do is open to the public at any point in time, so we have to make sure that everything is above board at all times because everything is public record. It's really difficult balancing the communication effectively to leadership who don't understand all the nuances, to external parties that don't understand the nuances, and even to our legislature. When we go to our annual appropriations meetings, they'll ask why procurements take so long, but in the same sentence they'll ask how we can make sure we're not having a ton of change orders and pricing changes after the fact. Your procurement stage is your planning stage of everything you buy, and that's really where you need to spend your time. The interpretation of rules can vary across the roughly 37 state agencies in Florida, because every state agency does everything differently and interprets the rules differently, even though the statutes say what they say.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
In my work, I value ethics, accountability, and doing the right thing. I believe in making sure everything ticks and ties and all the T's are crossed and the I's are dotted. I'm passionate about making sure the procurement process is done correctly and that we're being good stewards of public resources, especially since everything we do in Florida is public record under the Sunshine law. In my personal life, my family is most important to me. I spend all my time with my kids and try not to get involved in professional organizations outside of work so I can spend more time with my family. I love doing things for others, whether that's decorating for birthdays at the office, organizing PTSA events, or being team mom for baseball teams. Even though I'm decorating and organizing for others, it's rewarding for me because I like doing for others. I coordinate fall schedules, run apps for the team, volunteer for field trips, and go all out for end-of-year parties and awards. That's probably my favorite thing in life, making events special for people.