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Alaskan to Lead the National Assoc. of Women in Construction Featuring Tamie Taylor
Heather A. Resz, The Alaska Contractor, Summer 2007
Even before the construction industry began actively recruiting women, some like Tamie Taylor still found their way nto the business by accident.
Photo by Heather A Resz
In college, she sometimes worked alongside her boyfriend
doing miscellaneous jobs for his father, a general
contractor.
On the job site, she’d question the contractor about details
such as materials that weren’t on-hand when needed and
delayed work.
After graduating with her degree in biology and unable to
find work in that field, Taylor took that experience with her to
a job doing secretarial work.
But her employer saw potential and began training her to
be an assistant contract administrator, she said.
Ever curious, Taylor insisted on working as a laborer on a
job so she could better understand what goes on in the field,
she said.
“They thought I was nuts.”
Next she went to work in the job site office doing ordering
and purchasing.
She compared the skills project managers use to those
many women use day-to-day to meet the challenge of preparing
a meal so everything is ready to go on the table at
once; while simultaneously juggling the laundry, cleaning,
child care, settling disputes, the children’s extracurricular activities,
a career and a husband.
“That just brings you right into the basics of project management,”
Taylor said. “Initiating, planning, executing, controlling
and closing.”
Nationwide, women make up about 12 percent of the construction
industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Between 2004 and 2005, the number of women working in
construction increased by 41,000, according to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics.
National leader
Today Taylor is the General
Manager of Tatitlek Contractors
Inc. Before joining the company in
April, she was the vice president of
construction for NANAPacific for
two years.
“I learned all my construction
just by wanting to know,” Taylor
said. “I’m not a carpenter and I’ll
never tell you that I am. But I know
the basics to get the job done.”
Her career in the construction industry includes more
than 20 years of experience in construction, 15 in government
contracting and 12 in project management.
Since graduation, Taylor said she’s worked a total of about
a year using her biology degree. “I choose to stay in the construction
industry.”
Whether talking to students about opportunities in the
trades, or giving a speech to a national audience Taylor’s
message is the same: The construction industry needs men
and women – skilled and professional – to pursue construction
careers.
“This is something you can get into and do for the rest of
your life,” she said.
Over the years, Taylor has often spoken about the opportunities
and challenges facing the industry in her various roles
with the National Association of Women in Construction and
the organization’s Alaska Chapter No. 197.
She will be installed as the national
president of NAWIC in September
at its national convention in
Orlando, Fla.
NAWIC is a volunteer organization
to enhance the success of
women in the construction industry
with more than 5,000 members
nationwide.
Since joining the local NAWIC
chapter in 1992, Taylor has served
as local chapter president, chapter
corresponding secretary, chapter
treasurer, chapter board director, and
various committee chairs. Nationally,
her service includes regional director,
national treasurer, national vice president and national
president-elect.
“If you are a woman in the industry NAWIC is there
to provide you with leadership growth, communications
growth and personal growth to help you be a stronger
leader, employee and person as a whole,” Taylor said.
NAWIC is an awesome resource
Evelyn Clark, of Kiewit Building Group Inc., was so green
when she got her first job at an architectural firm years ago,
she said she didn’t even know for sure what architects did.
But her boss’s wife belonged to NAWIC and she invited
Clark to come along and learn more about the industry.
Now Clark’s been an NAWIC member for 25 years and
was the first Alaskan to serve as its national president in
1996-97.
“NAWIC is an awesome resource, she said. “I can always
find someone to answer my question. There are always questions
and always more to learn.”
A few years after becoming a member, Clark began taking
classes through NAWIC’s Education Foundation. She was the
first to earn a certificate in Alaska – a Certified Construction
Assistant.
The nonprofit education foundation
offers its classes to everyone.
“No matter what I do I can keep
learning,” Clark said.
Whether it’s through the presentations
by guest speakers at NAWIC’s
monthly meetings or job site tours, she
said NAWIC is a great tool to learn more
about the many careers included in the
construction industry.
“When we go to the schools and talk
to kids – that’s one of the things we try
to get across,” she said. “Surveyors, engineers,
architects, project managers – so
many different disciplines are required
to work together from start to finish.”
National president by 2018
Misty Dawn Crim has volunteered for years as an officer in
the Alaska chapter of NAWIC. Two years as the corresponding
secretary and two years as vice president. This year she is
chapter president.
But Crim has her eye on the organization’s top post, which
Taylor will occupy beginning in September.
She has her plan mapped out year by year on a series of
notes stuck under the glass on her desk where she works as
a contract administrator for Wilder Construction Company.
Each item on the list represents an NAWIC office at the local,
regional and national level she must hold before she can be
elected national president.
“I fell in love with NAWIC after the
national convention in Salt Lake City,”
Crim said.
It was there in 2003 that she told
Alaska NAWIC president Kathy Carlisle
she’d like to be the national president
by 2018.
But Carlisle didn’t keep the notion
to herself. Back home, she told the
other NAWIC chapter members about
Crim’s goal.
Crim said women like Taylor, Clark
and Carlisle have helped nurture her
career. Crim even described Clark as
her mentor.
“I don’t think I’d be where I am
today without her,” Crim said. “She’s a
great resource.”
In addition to working at Wilder as a
contract administrator and leading the
local chapter of NAWIC as president,
Crim also is active in AGC and is raising
two small children with her husband.
“Wilder’s support has been amazing,”
Crim said. “Their support is what
makes me want to do it.”
Wilder is a business member of the
Alaska Chapter of NAWIC, which will
celebrate its 35th anniversary in Alaska
in 2008. The Alaska chapter has 52
members in Fairbanks, Kenai, Soldotna
and Anchorage.
Last year during the chapter’s annual
“Women in Construction Week,”
Wilder had four female employees
honored with NAWIC’s “Constructive
Women Awards.” That’s half of the total
awards given, Crim said.
“Ask any one of my bosses about
how I’ve changed,” she said. “Being
a member of NAWIC really opens
your eyes to the variety of careers for
women.”
There is no such thing as a
normal day
Taylor admits she is a multi-tasker
who can’t stop working, or networking,
even on vacation.
While she has her picture taken for
this story she checks her voice mail,
returns a few e-mails and goes over a
page of numbers on her desk.
Even when she takes a vacation, she
said her husband Paul teases her for inspecting the work at other companies’
job sites.
“They could be doing that more efficiently,”
Taylor tells her husband.
“You’re on vacation,” he reminds
her. “And those guys don’t work for
you. Let’s keep walking.”
All across Alaska, Taylor can point
to the skyline and tell stories about the
shipments that were delayed for that
building, or how her team solved this
or that logistical challenge related to
doing business in remote Alaska. Every
project has its stories, she said.
“At the end, that project is there and
you get to see it again and again. Or
you can take friends and family by. It’s a
lasting reminder,” Taylor said.
She came to Alaska in 1989 after
her then-husband got a job working on
Adak. They’d planned to see each other
on the weekends until they figured out
that a plane ticket between Anchorage
and Adak cost $1,264; it was a quick
lesson on how construction in Alaska is
different than other areas.
Education is huge
When Taylor talks to students about
her chosen career in construction she
encourages them to study hard.
“You need the education. You need
math and science. You need physics,”
Taylor said. “Education is huge.”
Taylor works with NAWIC to get
the message out that it takes a diverse
group of individuals to take a project
from start to finish. Math and science
skills are critical skills in the construction
industry – whether a person is an
engineer, architect or a trades person,
she said.
Part of the national volunteer organization’s
mission also is to enhance
women and girls’ knowledge about the
construction industry and the opportunities
for top pay and good benefits
that the careers offer, she said.
To that end, NAWIC operates the
nonprofit NAWIC Education Foundation,
and the NAWIC Founders’ Scholarship
Foundation.
One of the NAWIC Education
Foundation’s initiatives specifically
aims to interest students in kindergarten
through 12th grade in the industry,
she said.
Taylor said NAWIC has worked
with Alaska youth to interest them in
construction careers for about 13 years.
NAWIC offers three separate ageappropriate
learning opportunities for
students in kindergarten through high
school.
- Block Kids is NAWIC’s national
contest for students in grades first
through sixth.
- Build Design is for middle school
students.
- AutoCAD/hand-drafting program
is for high school students.
“The more you know the more
valuable you are as an employee and
employer,” Taylor said.
The NAWIC Construction Education
Foundation also offers an adult
education certification program. The
training offers certification as a Construction
Industry Technician, Construction
Document Specialist and
Certified Construction Assistant.
The education courses are offered to
everyone - members or non-members,
female or male.
Taylor’s earned her Construction
Document Technologist certification
through the Construction Specifications
Institute and was the first person
in Alaska to earn both the Certified
Industry Technician and Construction
Document Specialist certifications
through the NAWIC Education Foundation.
And she has a Master’s Certificate
in Project Management from
George Washington University.
Taylor said she also promotes the
certification programs in the Alaska
NAWIC chapter by conducting study
groups and encouraging other individuals
in the construction industry.
Crim, who holds a CIT certificate,
said, “We’re looking to enhance what
you know or if you are looking for new
skills.”
Senior Editor Heather A. Resz is the
sole proprietor of the contract writing
business, Infinite Designs.