Michelle Harris
Before joining Department of Transportation, Michelle Harris served as a Lead Business Opportunity Specialist with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) in the 8(a) Business Development Continuing Eligibility Office. This office conducts annual in-depth continuing eligibility reviews of all 8(a) certified firms. She served as the technical resource person to team members, as member of the leadership team to centralize all reviews from the field to the SBA headquarters office and assisted in developing policy and training for this newly formed office.
Prior to that, Michelle was the Executive Director for the State of Delaware’s Office of Supplier Diversity. She was responsible for ensuring the continued implementation of Delaware’s Executive Orders 14 and 29, which address Delaware’s commitment to providing equal access for minority, women and veteran/service disabled veteran owned small businesses to participate in the competitive process for State goods and services. In this capacity Michelle worked with these business individually and collectively to provide assistance and information in the areas of marketing, identifying funding sources, building capacity, relationship building/networking, and strategies on solidifying sub-contracting opportunities. She worked with all state agencies to implement their Supplier Diversity Plans, which were submitted to her for approval annually, maintaining their continued commitment to meeting the goals of these Executive Orders.
Prior to her role in Delaware, Michelle was a Senior Stakeholder Relationship Tax Consultant with the Communication and Education Department of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). In this capacity she partnered with non-profit groups in the sharing of pertinent tax and asset building information, leveraging a free income tax assistance program and providing technical guidance and training to non-profit partners. The primary stakeholders receiving these services were low-to-moderate income families and small business owners.