Meredith Bedenbaugh-Thomas is the Principal Senior Advisor, Office of Acquisition, Logistics, and Construction. Mrs. Bedenbaugh-Thomas serves as VA’s integrator for major transformational efforts providing cross-organizational synchronization to ensure consistent, positive outcomes for the improvement of services for Veterans, their families, caregivers, and survivors. In addition, her responsibilities include providing oversight of agency-wide efforts to support the Office of the Secretary, Under Secretaries, and Assistant Secretaries.
Prior to her appointment in OEI, Mrs. Bedenbaugh-Thomas served within the Veterans Benefits Administration as the Assistant Director and Program Manager for VA’s Military to Civilian Transition efforts delivering required VA Benefits and Services to nearly 477,000 transitioning Service members and their family members annually at over 300+ military installations worldwide. Additionally, Ms. Bedenbaugh-Thomas led VA’s Operational Management Review (OMR) performance management model as the Director, Operational Management Review Service Area, Office of Policy and Planning (OPP). In this role, she provided executive oversight of the Department’s Major Initiatives maturing the OMR model into a transformational activity.
Ms. Bedenbaugh-Thomas holds a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies from the Naval War College, a Master of Arts in Acquisition and Contract Management from the Florida Institute of Technology, and a Bachelor of Arts in US Policy and Politics from George Washington University. Additionally, Ms. Bedenbaugh-Thomas holds Level III Federal Acquisition Certification in Contracting (FAC-C) and Program Management (FAC-P/PM).
Ms. Bedenbaugh-Thomas is a third-generation Veteran who served in the United States Army Judge Advocate General Corp and served in multiple senior acquisitions and program management positions before her government service. Mrs. Bedenbaugh-Thomas is a long-standing member of Girl Scouts of America and earned the silver award, one of the highest awards in Girl Scouting, and actively volunteers in supporting military families in the surrounding areas.
