Ms. Nichols started her 25-year career with the Department of Defense at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where she held a variety of positions in financial management, personnel management, program analysis/management, computer information systems development, and training from 1988 until 2004. She served as the US Army SBIR Program Manager at the US Army Materiel Command from 2004-2008, where she developed and successfully implemented several program and system modernization initiatives. She is currently serving as Program Director, DARPA Small Business Programs Office, SBIR/STTR Program Manager where she is focused on creating an environment that considers small business concerns as a primary source of innovative solutions; expanding small business relationships and training opportunities within DoD and other federal agencies; and enabling the small business community to create and transition radical, game-changing technologies that benefit the Warfighter, the federal government, and the commercial marketplace. Ms. Nichols holds a Bachelor of Science in Management and Computer Information Systems from Park University, and a Master of Public Administration from American University.