James Bell Associates Inc.

James Bell Associates Inc., doing business as JBA, is a for-profit professional services firm based in Arlington, Virginia, that delivers program evaluation, research, technical assistance, and implementation support services to federal health and human services agencies as a prime contractor (90% of recent awards) and subcontractor. JBA operates without SBA set-aside designations on its prime work, competing predominantly in full-and-open procurements, though it holds positions on federal vehicles that carry Total Small Business set-asides.

JBA's customer base is heavily concentrated in HHS. The top five customers account for 98% of combined potential value: the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration Headquarters leads with 9 awards valued at $600.4 million combined potential, followed closely by the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration with 31 awards valued at $597.8 million, and the HHS Administration for Children and Families with 16 awards valued at $75.8 million. GSA Federal Acquisition Service and the National Endowment for the Arts round out the active set. This concentration reflects JBA's deep specialization in maternal and early childhood home visiting programs, child welfare evaluation, and tribal and indigenous family services—a niche that recurs across HHS sub-agencies. Across the entire award portfolio of 124 prime and sub awards, JBA serves 20 distinct federal agencies, though 61% of award counts are drawn from the top five HHS-rooted customers.

JBA's primary vehicle posture centers on the HHS Program Support Center IDIQ (16 task orders, $59.3 million combined potential value) and the Professional Services Schedule delivered through GSA (18 task orders, $26.6 million combined potential value). The vendor also holds seats on the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (11 task orders, $41.9 million combined potential value), where recent work includes a $4.5 million delivery order with the Administration for Children and Families for the Tribal Home Visiting Planning, Analysis, and Communication (THV PLACE) program and a $5.3 million Total Small Business delivery order with HHS Headquarters for telehealth technical assistance. JBA also owns a single-award Evaluations and Evidence Building IDIQ with HHS (ceiling $344.7 million, awarded September 2024, running through September 2027), one of the largest vehicles in its portfolio. A smaller SAMHSA IDIQ ($1,000 baseline ceiling, July 2022–July 2027) rounds out the IDIQ footprint.

On prime work, JBA demonstrates sustained activity with a $26.8 million Total Small Business definitive contract awarded by the Administration for Children and Families in September 2024 for the Tribal Home Visiting Resource Institute for Excellence (THRIVE) Technical Assistance Center, cost-plus-fixed-fee, running through September 2029. SCI-reportable activity on this award showed $4.9 million invoiced in FY2025 across 14.3 FTEs at a derived rate of $164.12/hr, with subcontractor engagement reaching 40% of contractor hours. A $9.9 million delivery order from ACF for state and tribal child welfare court performance measurement (August 2024, ultimate completion July 2029) illustrates JBA's shift to time-and-materials engagements; through FY2025, it has invoiced $278 thousand across 0.5 FTEs at $287.26/hr. A $3.55 million firm-fixed-price delivery order with ACF for research on prenatal alcohol and drug programs' effect on child welfare prevention outcomes (September 2024, September 2027 completion) carried $592 thousand invoiced in FY2025 across 2.1 FTEs at $134.39/hr with minimal subcontractor lift (11% of hours).

JBA's SCI-reportable federal service-contract footprint shows steady growth: $8.2 million invoiced in FY2022 across 25.8 FTEs, rising to $10.6 million in FY2025 across 28.5 FTEs. Across prime SCI records, government-paid hourly rates span a median of $157.68/hr, with the 10th percentile at $127.64/hr and the 90th percentile at $231.94/hr, reflecting a mix of junior research staff, statisticians, and senior research leadership. Across SCI-reportable prime contracts, subcontractors account for an average of 14% of total contractor hours, with 33 named subcontractors engaged over the period; this pattern—predominantly internal delivery with selective use of specialized subs—is consistent across the portfolio. JBA's GSA Schedule labor portfolio spans 19 categories from Project Support II ($79.91/hr, bachelor's, three years) through Senior Research Associate II ($197.27/hr, master's, ten years) and Executive roles ($340.05/hr, master's, fifteen years), with no security-cleared positions offered.

JBA operates as a subcontractor to larger HHS integrators and research prime contractors. Named primes include Education Development Center (MIECHV Technical Assistance Resource Center and related home visiting innovation work), Zero To Three National Center for Infants, Toddlers & Families (early childhood development systems-building, Infant-Toddler Court evaluation, and workforce development initiatives), Johns Hopkins University (data sharing and precision home visiting leadership), and ICF Incorporated (early care and education research finalization and publication support). These sub-roles emphasize technical assistance delivery, evaluation leadership, and workforce development co-direction—higher-level roles than labor augmentation.

In the federal grant space, JBA acts as a sub-recipient under research grants awarded to academic and nonprofit lead recipients. Grant work encompasses Infant-Toddler Court evaluation through a Zero To Three subaward (September 2024), early childhood development systems-building technical assistance (August–September 2025, Zero To Three lead), home visiting workforce development co-leadership under Education Development Center (October 2023), and early childhood development data interoperability work under Johns Hopkins (July 2026). JBA also received a $100,000 Project Grant directly from HHS Administration for Children and Families (CFDA 93.600, Head Start) in September 2024 to examine drivers of Early Head Start provider well-being and job performance.

Recent awards show growth in the $4–27 million range with multi-year performance periods (2024–2027 and 2025–2031). Of the 124 total awards in the portfolio, only 4 awards with combined potential value of $10.1 million reach ultimate completion within the next twenty-four months, indicating a long tail of performance obligations and relatively low recompete exposure in the near term. JBA's 33-year award history (earliest award in source: May 1991) and sustained HHS agency relationships position it as a subject-matter expert in home visiting, early childhood systems, child welfare evaluation, and maternal health—a narrow but deep specialization that has attracted eight-figure single-award vehicles and drives repeat task-order activity across established GSA and HHS platforms.

JBA provides program evaluation, evaluation-related technical assistance, policy analysis, organizational assessment, performance measurement, and knowledge development and applications services to public and private sector organizations.