By Hazel Scott/ASU
Alabama State University has reached a major milestone in its commitment to small business excellence, as its fifth Mentor-Protégé Agreement (MPA) was honored with the prestigious Nunn-Perry Award for excellence, the highest honor bestowed by the Department of Defense (DoD) as part of a mentoring team for 2026. Prior award were given in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022.
The annual Nunn-Perry Award honors outstanding mentor-protégé partnerships that strengthen the defense industrial base and small business growth by driving capability, expanding capacity, and delivering measurable results to meet complex national security missions.
The honor recognizes collaboration between ASU (MPA Mentor-Protégé Agreement), Parsons Government Services, Inc. (mentor), and Sphinx (protégé), a cyber counterintelligencea (CI) and cybersecurity company founded in 2018 by veterans with expertise in special operations, intelligence, and cyber warfare.
“Alabama State University is honored to receive the Nunn-Perry Award in recognition of our commitment to strengthening the defense industrial base through impactful mentorship,” said Dr. Kennedy S. Wekesa, associate provost for Academic Affairs. “This award reflects our dedication to building sustainable, high-performing enterprises through strategic collaboration and innovation. This is a great example of CommUniversity!”
As part of the Mentor-Protégé team, ASU helped provide:
- Business Development: ASU delivered targeted support in business development by providing access to advanced government contracting research platforms that generate actionable market intelligence and analysis to accelerate growth.
- Talent Acquisition: ASU enhanced talent acquisition capacity by evaluating and refining organizational policies, procedures, and tools to position the protégé for scalable expansion.
Wekesa noted that since the start of the ongoing mentorship three years ago, Sphinx has won its first sole-source prime contract, valued at more than $1.4 million.
The key feature of a sole-source prime contract, Wekesa said, is the absence of a competitive bidding process, making it a “non-competitive” procurement method.
“ASU is also currently mentoring three other protégés,” added Wekesa.
MORE ABOUT THE NUNN-PERRY AWARD
The DoD Mentor Protégé Program was established in 1990. The award is named for the contributions of Senator Sam Nunn and former Secretary of Defense William Perry, both of whom played critical roles in the implementation of the DoD Mentor Protégé Program. The program has since expanded, providing developmental assistance to Women-Owned Small Businesses, Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses, and others.