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 René Nutter, Business Development and Capture Manager. René has more than 20 years of experience driving business growth and research excellence. She has built enduring client relationships and led multimillion-dollar programs from capture through implementation, shaping account strategies, leading high-performing teams and achieving measurable results that advance policy decisions and mission outcomes.
Can you share a pivotal moment in your career that influenced your path in public sector consulting?
A pivotal moment in my career came when a friend introduced me to federal consulting at a time when I was struggling to find my way and searching for direction. Until my late 20s, I didn’t even realize federal contracting was a viable career path, but that conversation changed everything. I began as a federal contractor, which exposed me to a wide range of projects and a fast-moving, dynamic environment, and later transitioned into government service as a federal employee at the Department of Labor, where I served as Chief of Staff and Acting Regional Director as a contracting officer.
What ultimately drew me back to federal contracting was the energy and variety. No two days are the same, priorities shift quickly and you’re constantly solving new problems, which is exactly the kind of environment where I thrive.
What drives your passion for working in government contracting?
What drives my passion for working in government contracting is the scale of impact the work can have. Through a single policy change or program improvement, you can meaningfully improve outcomes for entire populations, sometimes across the country. Being part of the federal contracting side means you’re directly involved in turning those policies into action and helping ensure programs reach the people they intend to serve.
How do you approach leadership and team building?
My approach to leadership and team building is deeply shaped by my early career in culinary arts. Working on a kitchen line taught me that everyone depends on one another to succeed and that the work only comes together when people are willing to step in and support each other under pressure. That experience taught me to never ask someone to do something I wouldn’t do myself, and that success is fundamentally interdependent. Strong teams thrive when there’s mutual respect, shared accountability, and a collective commitment to the mission. At the end of the day, it’s never about one individual, but about the team.
What innovations or trends in the public sector excite you the most?
One innovation in the public sector that excites me is the growing shift toward patient-centered care, particularly CMS’s focus on empowering patients to lead their own healthcare journeys. I strongly believe that people often know best when something is off, and I’ve seen firsthand how valuable that insight can be. For example, during a recent virtual doctor’s visit, I was able to share my perspective on how a course of steroids might be affecting other symptoms I was experiencing. Rather than dismissing it, the doctor validated my input, investigated it and brought that information into the clinical decision-making process. I’m also excited about the future of health data accessibility, like being able to carry your full medical record on your phone and share it seamlessly with any provider.
Can you discuss a project or initiative you’re particularly proud of?
One project I’m especially proud of is the research and evaluation work I led on the Summer EBT program. Summer EBT is designed to ensure school-age children continue to have access to nutrition support during the summer months, when food insecurity often spikes due to reduced access to school meals. I worked on this effort for nearly ten years, helping evaluate the program’s impact, and the results included significant reductions in food insecurity among participating families. What made the experience particularly rewarding was seeing that evidence directly shaped policy: Summer EBT was ultimately implemented as the first new national child nutrition program in almost 50 years.