Jodi Essex is the program director for the APEX Accelerator program at Iowa State University CIRAS where her role is to help Iowa businesses identify, compete for, and win government contracts. Ms. Essex’s uses her professional experience as a government buyer and a government contracting specialist to understand the barriers that prevent small businesses from competing in the government marketplace and works to develop programs and deliver one-on-one counseling to businesses to overcome those barriers.

Ms. Essex holds the Certified Procurement Professional (CPP) designation through the Association of Procurement Technical Assistance Centers (APTAC) and is also a Center for Verification and Evaluation (CVE) Certified Counselor with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. She also serves on the board of directors for APTAC in the role of President-Elect.