In a celebration to culminate the end of Women’s History Month, a new alliance of Los Angeles industry professionals hosted its kick-off networking event on March 31. The new non-profit group, Women Working Together (WWT), represents the partnership formed by the local chapters of four existing women’s organizations within the AEC community: American Institute of Architects, Women in Architecture Committee (AIALA-WiA); National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC-LA); Structural Engineers Association, Women in Structural Engineering Committee (SEAOSC-WiSE) and Women in Operations (WiOPS).
The successful event was attended by 175 attendees that included men and women, and took place in the elegant venue of City Green, at City National Plaza, in Downtown Los Angeles. The evening was generously sponsored by over twenty companies and organizations, including Giroux Glass. To highlight the theme of women working together, the wine selections served were each created by women winemakers, distributed by Vinovore, a local retailer that specializes in wines and other products created by women; and the musical entertainment was provided by Jennifer “Spags” Spignola, the violinist who roamed the crowd, playing a diverse mix of music on her electric violin.
Giroux Glass was one of many companies from across the local community which supported this event. Other organizations who generously donated included: Brandow & Johnston, Coleman Equipment Rentals, Clark Construction, IMEG Corporation, McCarthy Building Companies, Pacific Wall Systems, Inc., T&S Structural, Abet Laminati, HBC, JRM Construction West, Martin Bros., Murray Company, Vulcan Materials Company, Structural Focus, Thornton Tomasetti, Hathaway Dinwiddie, Kimley Horn, MATT Construction, Miyamoto and USGBC-LA.
The team that planned and executed the event came from a varied group of companies and industry roles, and which represented the equally diverse range of their respective volunteer organizations. The steering committee had members from NAWIC-LA:
- Barbara Kotsos, director of marketing and public relations for Giroux Glass, is the organization’s immediate past president
- Ileana Holguin, vice president, project executive at McCarthy Building Companies is a director
from SEAOSC-WiSE:
- Michelle Kam-Biron, mass timber specialist at Structurlam
from AIALA-WiA:
- Ashley Richardson, managing principal at Ehrlich Yanai Rhee Chaney Architects
- Jennifer Noel Wong, architect at CO Architects, and the organization’s past co-chair
from WiOPS:
- Leah Wimberly, estimator and project manager at Pacific Wall Systems, Inc.;
Starting at the top, with the role of CEO and president, Nataline Lomedico, along with 30% of its management positions filled by women, Giroux Glass has long been a champion of groups whose mission is to empower and increase the number of women in construction. Giroux’s female representation is not the norm for the industry in general, in which just under 11% of construction roles are filled by women. This percentage has inched up a few points over the past decade, but not to the extent that would more accurately represent the near-equal representation of women in the general workforce. Similarly, within the specialties of architecture and engineering, only 27% of these roles are filled by women. With the help of organizations such as these, the entire AEC community strives to see these numbers increase. Giroux Glass was honored to be a part of this inaugural event and will continue to support the mission of these women’s organizations. We wish the new organization, WWT, much success in continuing to bring us all together to achieve these goals.