This article is one in a series of conversations with women leaders in the construction industry. Click here for past discussions.
Before Erin Kenney found her way into the construction industry, she wanted to work in education.
Originally based out of Suffolk Construction’s headquarters in Boston, she made the move to West Palm Beach, Florida. As project executive, one of her most recent projects is the Palm Beach International Airport’s $141 million Concourse B Expansion.
Now, Kenney finds a way to tie her passion for education and construction together.
She takes moments when she can to mentor people, from interns to project managers looking to take the next step. And she’s working to establish a program in West Palm Beach that existed in Boston, where the construction firm brings in Girl Scouts to guide them on a variety of activities to earn merit badges.
Here, Kenney talks with Construction Dive about what it means to be a woman in construction, making her dual passions coexist and advice she’d give other women in the industry.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
CONSTRUCTION DIVE: What drew you to a career in construction?
ERIN KENNEY: I actually always wanted to be an elementary school teacher. I grew up in a neighborhood where one of my neighbors was a teacher. I’d helped her during the school year, really loved kids and the concept of teaching and seeing the results of that. But as I grew into high school, I got into a lot of CAD work and design and said, “Hey, let’s try to take a chance on this in college, see what happens.”
My first project out of school was working for an OPM down in the city of Fall River, Massachusetts, working in an elementary school, and I was just like, “This is cool.”
How do you put your passions for education and construction together?
I feel like they run parallel. First of all, thank gosh, I’m not dealing with kindergartners and first graders. God bless those teachers who do.
Erin Kenney
Permission granted by Suffolk Construction
For me, I take it twofold. I take it from the owner’s side and I take it from the Suffolk side.
From the owner’s side, it’s educating owners about what we do and what we provide as a deliverable, their buildings. How do we work together to get down that path and basically achieve their ultimate goal? It evolves as I go through it.
From the Suffolk side, we’re only as good as the team that’s with us on a project.
I have always been one to absorb from my mentors in the business. I always feel like I need to make sure that the team that surrounds me knows as much as I do, if not more. I try to take folks aside and say, “Hey, this is the concept, or this is the context of that meeting,” and educate and mentor.
That could be anyone from the intern that just walked through the door and is as green as can be, or all the way up to the senior project manager that’s right below me.
What does it mean to you to be a woman in construction?
I pondered this question for years, because I want to be seen as a human and as an equal opportunity leader in the industry, not necessarily by my gender.
When I first came into the business, I was one of only a few. I barely saw any other females in the industry, but it was kind of just the mindset of, “We’re all the same, we’re all working towards the same goals and trying to achieve that.” As I grew older, I realized that you do kind of need that surrounding. It was reassuring to have those folks around me.
We are different, males and females, in how we respond to things, how we manage, how we speak.
I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned how to manage the business, manage trades and be able to hold my ground. I knew that I couldn’t come in and show all my cards. I had to have a little bit of a rough edge in order to “keep up with the boys,” shall we say.
But you also have to be a sponge at the same time, and accept situations and accept conversations where you say to yourself, “Okay, we’re going to maneuver it in a way that I’m going to get my objective, even though he may be talking to me like he does with his daughter.”
What advice would you give other women in construction?
What’s that Tom Brady saying? LFG?
You’ve got to want it individually, but you have to surround yourself with the right people to make sure that as you go up the ladder you have the support around you.
Whether that’s mentors, your direct manager, your project team, that will 100% allow you to grow into wherever you want to be in this industry.
The world is your oyster, as I say, it’s just a matter of, how far do you want to go?
