2022

Kim Carrillo graduated with a B.S. from CSU Sacramento and is Interim Purchasing Supervisor for Los Rios Community College District, servicing California’s second largest community college district. She provides public bid and procurement expertise to support the successful implementation of the District’s $1 billion capital building program and facilities maintenance and operations of 4.5 million square feet of District space. Kim is a contributing member to the CCC Facilities Procurement Guidebook, and NCCCPG committees. She deployed electronic bidding and has successfully bid out over $60 million in new construction projects since 2020. Having worked for over 13 years in higher education, she has a well-informed perspective to apply procurement strategy, leverage cooperative agreements, and makes efforts to increase the District’s vendor diversity.

Jennifer Keiper currently serves as Senior Director of CollegeBuys at the Foundation for California Community Colleges, where she oversees business development efforts and program operations for the CollegeBuys program. One of her key roles is to sustain core business lines, diversify procurement opportunities, improve operational efficiencies and lead the department’s compliance efforts. Jennifer and her team work closely with the Chancellor’s Office, the Advisory Group and key stakeholders across the 73 districts to ensure their needs are being reflected in systemwide agreements, while simultaneously collaborating with corporate and intersegmental partners to increase access and cost-savings for students, colleges, and the system as a whole.

Jennifer has over ten years of experience in California’s public sector, eight of which have been dedicated to contracting in higher education within the CCC and UC systems. In her previous role as Contracts Officer for UC Davis Health, she was responsible for negotiating business contracts for UC Davis Medical Center, School of Medicine, and School of Nursing. Jennifer earned her bachelor of arts in political science from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and her juris doctorate in public interest from UC Davis School of Law.

Ms. Zavian Co-Founded PlanetBids in 1998 along with her life and business partner, Alan Zavian, a Certified WBE and SBE California corporation, with the vision of streamlining the procurement and contracting processes of governmental agencies. As President, Ms. Zavian is primarily involved in strategic planning of its products and overall management of PlanetBids. With over 30 years of experience and knowledge in consulting with government, Ms. Zavian is a recognized leader in the eProcurement industry.

Today, PlanetBids is proud to provide its third-generation cloud-based best-in class and innovative suite of eProcurement modules known as the PB System™ to the public sector that are user friendly and cost effective with unique configurable characteristics. PlanetBids serves over 300 public agencies nationwide with over 400,000 unique vendors and contractors in its database.

Ms. Zavian holds a B.S. degree in Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Since 2006, Ms. Diaz has made it a mission to work with every PB System™ client to ensure that all users are trained to get maximum usage of the system while complying with their internal purchasing guidelines. Working with everyone from small and local business advocate groups to assigned personnel at large agencies, Ms. Diaz is also responsible for on-site training, refresher training, webinars, and surveys to better serve all PlanetBids clients.

Prior to joining PlanetBids, Ms. Diaz worked in the San Jose State University (SJSU) Purchasing Department. She has earned a long list of accolades, including the SARA Gold award from the Dept. of General Services for being the top Small Business and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise (SB/DVBE) Advocate of the year, and 3 No Matter What Awards in Excellence and 6 You Make the Difference Awards from SJSU. In 2006, Ms. Diaz was the first recipient of the Most Outstanding BidsOnline™ user award at the 1st Annual PlanetBids Users Conference, proof of her 360° knowledge of the PB System™.

Heather Cade-Bauer has worked for Lake Tahoe Community College District since 2011 in various capacities. Since 2014 she has worked in the Purchasing Department overseeing all District procurement of goods and services. Heather has served on the CollegeBuys Advisory Committee since 2020, is a co-chair of the Northern California Community College Purchasing Group since 2021, and has been a CAPPO member since 2017.

Since 2001, Angela has worked in some aspect of procurement for Antelope Valley Community College District. She started in the District’s bookstore as an hourly employee and currently serves as Director of Purchasing & Contracts. She looks forward to the daily challenges of procurement and presenting innovative ways to make processes more fluid for her District. Her coworkers (and possibly the entire District) may say she’s a little obsessed with Halloween, but over the last 10 years and several decorating awards, even the most disenchanted look forward to her yearly production.

Tom Macias joined MiraCosta Community College District in March 2004 as the district’s Director of Facilities. His responsibilities include facilities managing the current Measure MM $455M facilities improvement bond program, non-bond capital planning and construction, maintenance and operations, grounds, custodial services, transportation, environmental compliance, hazardous waste management, safety compliance, industrial hygiene, recycling and fire prevention.

Mr. Macias’ 30+ years of senior management experience also includes positions held at NCR, National Steel and Shipbuilding, Northern Telecom and Callaway Golf Company.

Mr. Macias was born in Denver, Colorado. He graduated in 1982 from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO with a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Science in Environmental and Occupational Health. Mr. Macias is also a State of California Registered Environmental Assessor 05262 (REA).

Theresa Robinson Harris currently serves as Director of Procurement Services at the University of San Diego (USD), where she is responsible for providing strategic direction for procurement operations while working in close collaboration with university constituents to lower costs, increase efficiency, improve compliance, reduce third party risks, and promote diversity, equity and inclusion within the supply chain.

She has over 20 years’ experience leading diverse teams of procurement and contract management professionals. Prior to USD she held contracting and procurement positions in both the public and private sectors. She served as President to the National Contract Management Association, San Diego Chapter (NCMA), currently serves as the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Chair with the National Association of Educational Procurement (NAEP), and as a Director with CAPPO. She holds a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership from Pepperdine University.

Sherman is a principal of Public Agency Law Group. Sherman’s practice is devoted to representing public education institutions in construction, purchasing, facilities and general business matters. He has decades of experience assisting CCDs in navigating the confusing complexities of public procurement laws, rules and regulations. He is a member of the LA County Bar Association and is admitted to practice in all California state courts, all United States District Courts in California and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Rebekah Kalleen is a partner at Murdoch, Walrath & Holmes and a legislative advocate for education entities including the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, the Community College Facility Coalition, and the County School Facilities Consortium. She has over fifteen years of experience in the State advocacy sector, helping clients from small associations to large companies navigate the State budget, legislative, and regulatory processes. She previously served as a consultant to school districts participating in the State School Facility Program, assisting them with accessing state grant dollars for facility projects. Rebekah has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.