WOMEN IN CONSTRUCTION
Photo courtesy KWIC Steering Committee
KWIC Steering Committee, left to right:
Top: Joy Oseni, compliance program manager; Meredith Long, senior engineer; Justine Lentini, pre-construction manager
Middle: Banna Aparicio, HR operations manager; Marisa Schleter, marketing and communications manager; Shannon Price, human resources business partner
Bottom: Erin Cannon-Wells, corporate counsel; Spring Borchardt, senior project manager; Jo-'Anthion Harris, HSEQ coordinator
to the employee-led group. Their goal is
simple: to be a valuable resource where all
employees, regardless of gender, can share
thoughts, resources and ideas to foster
women in construction careers.
Four pillars
KWIC leaders created a managementapproved
strategic plan and a project
charter to guide their initiative. The
process led them to identify four pillars,
or key areas of focus. These include
promoting professional development,
creating an internal women’s network,
increasing recruitment and retention of
women employees and engaging the local
community through outreach.
KWIC was officially introduced to
Keller North America employees on Feb.
3, 2020, just before COVID-19 exploded
onto the world scene. Oseni says the
global pandemic definitely impacted the
group’s development, as it has most aspects
of society.
“We decided to focus on the first two
pillars of professional development and
building an internal women’s network,” she
explained. “When we were all at home
working remotely in March and April, we
thought this would be most productive and
we could focus on the last two pillars once
we can interact in person.”
So far, KWIC has hosted three
webinars that have been open to all Keller
employees. All have seen high attendance,
and Oseni says they have sparked ensuing
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