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<\/p>\nWomen who started their careers being the youngest and only woman in the room are now mentoring the next diverse generation entering the architecture, engineering and construction industries.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Bisnow\/Maddy McCarty\n <\/p>\n
\n 7 Rivers Marketing\u2019s Shannon Bedinger, TDK Construction Co.\u2019s Tina Khatri, Mirador Group\u2019s Krystyn Haecker, HOK\u2019s Linnea Wingo, Stream Realty Partners\u2019 Kristin Wall, Walter P Moore\u2019s Rachel Calafell and JRH Engineering & Environmental Services\u2019 Jennifer Henrichs.\n <\/p>\n
The industry has come a long way, but women still only account for<\/a> about 26% of architecture and engineering jobs and 11% of the construction industry. Even women in executive positions are still regularly asked to take notes or complete tasks usually expected of interns or new associates, panelists said at Bisnow\u2019s 2025 Houston Women Leading Real Estate Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n The event at the Omni Houston Hotel on Wednesday celebrated female leaders, innovators, dealmakers and rising stars in the AEC industry. Though they have faced challenges while being underrepresented in the industry, the panelists said they have learned to handle it with grace and use the advantages that come with being a woman.<\/p>\n \u201cAs females, typically we have a little bit higher emotional intelligence,\u201d said Kristen Wall, vice president of construction for Stream Realty Partners<\/a>, who was a dealmaker of the year honoree.<\/p>\n That emotional intelligence boosts communication skills, helping women decipher what everyone in a meeting is trying to accomplish.<\/p>\n \u201cOur industry is so people-oriented \u2026 if you can read the room, you’re in a better position than if you cannot,\u201d Wall said.<\/p>\n It took years of experience for Wall to get comfortable using those skills to her advantage \u2014 and to stop being mistaken for an architect or property manager when she was actually a project manager, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n All women AEC executives have likely been asked to take notes, even\u00a0when they have a decade more experience than other people in the room, said Linnea Wingo, director of interiors design at HOK<\/a> and an innovator of the year honoree.\u00a0<\/p>\n Women have to learn to politely say no, but having advocates also helps in that regard. Wingo had a mentor in a very experienced senior associate at Gensler<\/a> years ago, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember being in a situation where the client always asked me, \u2018Can you get us the drinks?\u2019\u201d Wingo said. \u201cI was the only woman in the room, and he stepped up and said, \u2018I can do that. Linnea\u2019s giving the presentation.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n It also helps to be extremely prepared and knowledgeable about your role, said Mirador Group partner Krystyn Haecker, a leader of the year honoree.<\/p>\n Though she was often the youngest person in the room early in her career, she\u00a0was often most involved in projects, having done the drawings and prepared the plans herself. That means the team would defer to her on questions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI was always the most prepared from our team, because I had the most information,\u201d Haecker said.<\/p>\n Tina Khatri, CEO of TDK Construction Co. and a dealmaker of the year honoree, said she didn\u2019t realize she would be treated differently early in her career, but she still wanted to be informed. She took classes, read as much as possible and dedicated her nights and weekends to learning more about the construction industry, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you go prepared, you\u2019re confident, you know your stuff, people aren\u2019t going to look at you like, \u2018Oh, but you\u2019re a woman. But you\u2019re young,\u2019\u201d Khatri said. \u201cThat\u2019s what helped me throughout the years. Now, I just can\u2019t believe how far we\u2019ve come.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Now, as they still seek mentorship and community themselves, the women also\u00a0serve as mentors for the next generation.<\/p>\n \u201cRegardless of where you are in your career, I think a mentor is very pertinent and important,\u201d Wall said.<\/p>\n Houston is experiencing a shift from generic to bespoke design, Wingo said, referencing the repetitive atrium-lobby office design of the 1980s and \u201990s contrasted with\u00a0newer office buildings<\/a> designed with their hyperlocal community in mind<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n The diversity of Houston and the people joining the industry is making for a richer design community, Haecker said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe’re able to walk into a room and speak on behalf of a community because we’ve represented it at the table,\u201d she said. \u201cThat alone is only going to improve it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women who started their careers being the youngest and only woman in the room are now mentoring the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":426092,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5130],"tags":[9886,118464,4345,198352,198354,198353,198351,78002,198356,358,198355,3187],"class_list":{"0":"post-426091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-construction","9":"tag-hok","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-kristin-wall","12":"tag-krystyn-haecker","13":"tag-linnea-wingo","14":"tag-mirador-group","15":"tag-stream-realty-partners","16":"tag-tdk-construction-co","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-tina-khatri","19":"tag-tx"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115666122697644979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/426092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}