MEET OUR FEATURED SPEAKERS 

John Shoraka

John Shoraka currently serves as the Managing Director of GovContractPros. As Managing Director, he assists small business government contractors in all phases of their business lifecycle including navigation of the federal marketplace, business development, certification for and compliance with small business set-aside programs, teaming and mentor-protégé arrangements, and financing and acquisition.

Previously, Shoraka served as former Associate Administrator of Government Contracting and Business Development at the U.S. Small Business Administration. His knowledge of the government contracting marketplace derives from decades of both infield private sector and public sector practice. As outgoing Associate Administrator of SBA, Shoraka was responsible for overseeing the federal government’s small business set-aside programs including 8(a) Business Development, HUBZone, WOSB and SDVOSB programs. He was also responsible for the Office of Size Standards, the federal government’s small business goaling program, as well as the federal government’s small business prime and subcontracting programs. Shoraka worked closely with the White House, Office of Federal Procurement Policy and Senior Administration officials in crafting best practices for accomplishing small business procurement goals and expanding opportunities in the marketplace.

Shoraka has deep understanding of the federal government contracting legislative and regulatory landscape. He was responsible for implementing procurement provisions of the Small Business Jobs Act (including the All Small Mentor Protégé Program), as well as the National Defense Authorization Acts of FY13-16 (including sole source authority for the WOSB program). He represented the SBA and the Obama Administration in hearings before Congress, including hearings with the House Small Business Committee, House Armed Services Committee, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs and the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. He was also a voting member of the Strategic Sourcing Leadership Council and its successor, the Category Management Leadership Council.

Shoraka also served as Regional Administrator for the SBA. As Regional Administrator for Region 3, he was responsible for the delivery and management of SBA’s small business programs, financial assistance, and business development program initiatives throughout the region.

Shoraka previously served as vice president at The Aries Group in Silver Spring, Md., a business and financial consulting firm where he was responsible for implementing multi-year projects throughout the world.

Prior to accepting the appointment as Regional Administrator at the SBA, he served as chair of the Small Business Association for International Contractors, where he represented 26 small business contractors that provide services to the United States Agency for International Development.

In addition, Mr. Shoraka served as adjunct faculty at Catholic University of America where he taught courses in international business and management science. Mr. Shoraka holds a B.S. from the University of Maryland, College Park and an MBA from George Washington University.

Kyia Jackson

Kyia Jackson is the Export Business Specialist for the Arizona Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) Export Center at The National Center. Kyia is an enrolled member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. She received her Bachelor of Science Degree in American Indian Studies and Minor in Sustainability from Arizona State University. Ms. Jackson previously worked for the Economic Development Program of the San Carlos Apache Tribe. During her time there, she assisted Tribal members with economic planning, establishing or expanding their businesses, hosting business workshops with community partnerships and created tourism activities. In her free time, she enjoys drawing, sewing and spending time with her dogs which led her to co-found a nonprofit focused on rescuing abandoned animals within her home community.

Adolfo J. Vasquez

LTC Adolfo E. Vasquez, USA, Ret., is currently a 12-year Procurement Technical Advisor with the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) in New Mexico. He has served as the Deputy District Director for the NM Small Business Administration (SBA) and currently is the Native American Small Business and Veteran’s Small Business PTAC advisor for New Mexico. He is a former CEO of a Defense Contracts Management Area Office, a former 16 year Warranted federal contracting officer and is a Certified Verification Counselor for the Veteran Administration’s Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE) program. He has over 35 years of experience as CEO, Procurement Officer, Administrative Contracting Officer, Contracting Officer Technical Representative (COTR), Quality Assurance Deputy Director, Deputy Federal Contracts Finance Comptroller and Federal Contracts Payment Operations Director. His “in the trenches” experience in logistics and program management, government contracting and procurement, FAR compliance, Quality Assurance, federal contract payments, fiscal accountability and small business development, training, counseling and marketing make him an invaluable consultant to any entrepreneur or seasoned business owner. He holds an MBA with a minor in Contract and Logistics Management and is a graduate of the Defense Acquisition Workforce Improvement Certification Program. He retired as a DAWIA level 2 & 3 in Contracting, Production, Quality and Manufacturing, Program Management, Purchasing and Test and Evaluation. LTC (Ret) Vasquez is a retired math and business development teacher in the NM public schools and was an Adjunct Professor in Math at University of New Mexico. He also holds a Level 3 APTAC Certified Procurement Technical Advisor Certification. In 2014 and 2017 he was awarded the NM SBA Veteran Small Business Champion of the Year and the NM SBA Minority Small Business Champion of the Year awards respectively. LTC Vasquez is married. His wife Shannon and he have 5 grown children and 2 grandchildren and reside in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

Celeste Nuñez

Celeste Nuñez is the Director of International Business Resources for the New Mexico Trade Alliance, a nonprofit economic development organization. She connects New Mexico companies with local, state, federal, and international export assistance resources to help them gain and grow international sales. Of these resources, Celeste manages the SBA-funded New Mexico STEP State Trade Expansion Program Grant under the New Mexico Trade Alliance’s contract with the State of New Mexico. Her efforts with the NM STEP Grant have resulted in close to $400,000 of grant funds successfully awarded to NM companies.

Celeste sits on the Albuquerque Sister Cities Foundation Board and is Chair of the Albuquerque-Guadalajara Sister City relationship. In 2019, Celeste served as the organizer for the Albuquerque - Chihuahua Sister City Bilateral Commission, which worked to promote projects of mutual benefit in the areas of economic development, tourism, cultural exchange, public safety, and education.

In 2020, Celeste was selected as the state’s sole Next Gen Global Leader with the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) and is now a member of its New Mexico Advisory Board.

Celeste graduated summa cum laude from the UNM Anderson School of Management with a BBA focused on International Management and Marketing.

Ashley Trujillo

Ashley Trujillo was born and raised in Northern New Mexico. Ashley currently works in the Small Business Program Office at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Ashley has been an employee at LANL since 2017 and within those six years she has worked in several supporting areas of Supplier Management. These areas include Supplier Enablement, Supplier Performance, and the Small Business Program. Ashley graduated from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor's degree in Management Information Systems. Ashley is currently working to complete a Masters degree in Project Management at the University of New Mexico. 

Laura Lovato

Laura has been at Sandia National Laboratories for 13 years. Prior to her current position, she was the Manager of the Integrated IT Procurement organization for 4.5 years. Under her leadership, in 2021 Sandia National Laboratories awarded an information technology subcontract of up to $700 million to a New Mexico small business. This is the largest subcontract Sandia has issued to date. Laura's motivation is "to partner with small businesses with a variety of skills and expertise to promote innovation in support of Sandia's mission. We have teams dedicated to helping interested suppliers navigate the rewarding but sometimes unfamiliar path of working with a national laboratory." Prior to sandia, Laura worked as a subcontracts manager for Northrop Grumman Technical Services and at Los Alamos National Laboratory as a Small Business Liaison Officer. Laura has an MBA in Finance and has also earned certifications in CFCM, CPCM and PMP.