Welcome to RELI Group’s Leadership Spotlight series! In this series, we’ll delve into the background, passions and philosophies of some of Team RELI’s best and brightest minds. Each post includes the same five questions, offering a comprehensive glimpse into the folks that make RELI great.
In today’s Leadership Spotlight, meet Juanita Wilson, Client Relationship Executive at RELI Group. She holds more than 30 years of federal service and leadership in relationship management, healthcare acquisition strategy and program execution. After spending most of her career at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), she led multi-billion-dollar portfolios supporting Medicare and prominent legislation. Juanita’s background has allowed her to cultivate strong partnerships, create strategic efforts and support RELI in delivering solutions aligned with clients’ goals.
Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that influenced your path in government contracting?
I’ve always been grounded by a family philosophy of helping those in need. I grew up in Washington, DC, in a large family filled with civil servants and military and law enforcement members. From a young age, I saw sacrifice, teamwork, humility and service modeled every day. Those experiences shaped how I viewed public service long before I ever stepped into a federal building.
My career actually started through a high school work-study program at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which gave me early exposure to real government operations. That experience led to a full-time federal role straight out of college and ultimately guided me toward the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), where I spent the majority of my career overseeing multi-billion-dollar contract portfolios that supported some of the agency’s most essential programs. After retiring, I realized I wasn’t ready to slow down. I’ve always been driven by learning and taking on new challenges, and joining RELI felt like a natural next step because the mission aligns so closely with my own values.
What drives your passion for working in government contracting?
At its core, my passion comes from the opportunity to make a real difference for people who depend on federal programs. Government contracting is about impact, especially for vulnerable populations who rely on the critical healthcare programs we support.
I also thrive on collaboration. I have never believed in working in silos. I’m energized by bringing together industry partners, government and stakeholders, and building bridges across high-performing teams to tackle tough problems. There’s something deeply fulfilling about overcoming adversity, getting to the root cause of problems and driving meaningful change. I love orchestrating those teams and creating that kind of true collaboration that’s centered around one shared mission.
How do you approach leadership and team building?
As someone who tries to stay consistent in my approach, that naturally carries into my leadership style. I consider myself a diplomatic leader. Even before I held formal leadership titles, I believed in meeting in the middle, focusing on commonalities and finding balance. Including everyone at the table makes it easier to adapt and work through any issue. I always start with the people doing the work, the boots on the ground, because they know where the real problems exist and they can generate ideas about good solutions.
I also believe that healthy conflict can be good. Discomfort leads to growth, and if you shut discussions down too quickly, you miss the chance to learn, improve and actually resolve the issue. I appreciate healthy banter and debate as long as it is professional and focused, because that’s often where real change starts.
What innovations or trends in the government sector excite you the most?
Everyone immediately jumps to AI, but what excites me most is anything that pushes us out of our comfort zone and forces us to think differently. During the pandemic, for example, we were forced to adopt new methods of working and reconnecting, and we grew because of it.
Right now, I’m encouraged by efforts to streamline and modernize federal processes, especially around contracting and technology. We’re being pushed to improve methods, find efficiencies and achieve positive outcomes in a shorter time frame. In the government contracting landscape, shortening how long it takes to get a contract in place means getting services to the people who need them faster. Anything that encourages broader thinking or pushes us toward streamlined approaches – I’m all for it.
Can you discuss a project or initiative you’re particularly proud of?
One initiative that I’m particularly proud of is helping to raise awareness and support a program that employs people with disabilities on government contracts. I first learned about this program at the DOE from a mentor who championed it, and it stuck with me. When I joined CMS, I had that idealistic mindset and simply asked whether the agency knew about the program or participated in it. That question set me on a path of finding the right match for raising awareness and building support.
I gained a strong backing from my leadership and together we were able to award the first two CMS contracts under that program, both of which are still in existence today. It was an uphill battle, especially with the misconceptions often surrounding disability employment, but seeing it succeed was incredibly fulfilling. It’s something I hope to continue in some way here at RELI.
