My DCMA: Cherish Tolbert, Keystone contract administrator

My DCMA: Cherish Tolbert, Keystone contract administrator

By Tonya Johnson Operational Business Center Public Affairs

My DCMA showcases the Defense Contract Management Agency's experienced and dedicated workforce and highlights what being part of the national defense team means to them. Today, Cherish Tolbert shares her story.

My name is Cherish Tolbert, and this is "My DCMA." I am a contract administrator at DCMA Mid-Atlantic based in Linthicum Heights, Maryland. My contract management office is a part of the Geographic & Systems Support Command.

I am in the Keystone program, which is a three-year developmental program where employees can learn their roles without the pressure of taking on a full workload as soon as they start. The program requires a variety of training courses to not only prepare us for being a functioning member of a team but gain in-depth knowledge about our functional areas. Other program requirements include rotational assignments in different functional areas and the Back-to-Basics certification.

I joined DCMA a year ago. One of the great things about working at my location is that the office is about an hour from Washington, D.C. We have a variety of workloads in the office and a good mix of the different functions. We even have Cost and Pricing and Total Force personnel based here. Some team members have contractors they get to visit in person, while others have contractors that are based overseas. There is always someone who has done a complex task before and people are always willing to help me here.

Besides meeting the requirements for the Keystone program, some of my job duties include completing contract receipt and review by ensuring that contract funding has been applied accurately to the contract. I perform a reconciliation to determine why the funds do not reconcile to the contract distribution, and I complete contract closeout procedures. I also had the opportunity to go on a site visit to see a production floor.

During my contractor site visit in October, I was able to see the production floor for an unmanned surface vessel in Baltimore. I observed each step of the building process from beginning to end. I saw the inspection of the metal sheets, the welding of the sheets together, then adding of the motor and electricity, and even the actual water trials of the vessel.

I like working at DCMA for two main reasons: my sense of purpose as an employee within the agency, and I enjoy the people I work with. Before I started working here, I had a basic level understanding of what DCMA did. After being here for a year, I know that it is more than just contract management. Our agency manages the contracts, but it isn't all administrative work in which employees sit behind a desk to work.

I learned quality assurance specialists go to the contractor sites and review the processes and inspect products to be able to accept it or not. Industrial specialists ensure products are on schedule and sometimes visit the production sites to ensure the contractor has the capability to complete the requirements of the contract. Without these checks and balances across the various functions, the warfighter could be getting a defective product and may not know it until it's too late.

At DCMA, we are ensuring warfighters have what they need. I have learned during the last year that we don't just deal with weapons but also clothing and even aircraft. DCMA works to ensure that from each perspective, quality, contracting, scheduling, funding, technical, the goods, products, or services for our warfighters are properly functioning. We must show up as our best every day as part of the DCMA team to ensure warfighters get what they need.

I have noticed our agency has experienced leadership changes within the last year. I have gone through a supervisor change. There have also been a few form application changes due to new business system updates. Although it has been a learning curve, the support I have received from my supervisors and team has made the transition easier. Because I am new to the agency, the new systems haven't been a drastic change since I am still learning, and I try to help my team members who are used to the older systems.

Some of my short-term goals include visiting more contractor sites and completing more cost-type contract closeouts. My future career goals include completing a DCMA International rotational assignment, graduating from the Keystone program and becoming an administrative contracting officer.

Two of my favorite hobbies are baking and crocheting. I have been baking since I was young, and it was one of the first things I told my parents I wanted to do. I used to bake all the time with my mother, and I soon took over as the baker in the family. I baked a chocolate cake for our DCMA Fall Fest at my job, and my co-workers loved it.

As for crocheting, years ago before my great-grandmother passed, she tried to teach me to knit and crochet because those are some things she loved to do. I couldn't wrap my head around the idea of using the one hook to crochet to make anything, and I chose knitting. Then, in recent years, I randomly picked up crocheting, and I haven't been able to stop.

Something unique about me is I bungee jumped over a private canyon in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, that sits between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo.

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