Women at Civilitude
In 1973 Congress designated August 26th as Women’s Equality Day to commemorate the decision to allow women to vote in 1920. The observance of this day not only commemorates the passage of the 19th Amendment, but also calls attention to women’s continuing efforts toward full equality. While much progress has been made, there is still lots of room for improvement– especially in STEM fields! Did you know that out of all Bachelors Degrees given in engineering, women only hold 21% of those? And, about 40 percent of women who have engineering degrees never enter the workforce or drop out. For that reason (and many more) we are so lucky to have had so many intelligent women work here at Civilitude! Past and present, all of the Civilitude women have been a powerful addition to our team (you can ask the men, you don’t want to mess with them), so we thought it was appropriate to celebrate them a little extra today!
By “powerful addition,” we truly mean powerful! Our Operations Manager, Leslie Botello, is one of the greatest forces behind this entire operation. She keeps the office running, keeps the principals in order (like that one time during a team building exercise when she told our CEO Fayez that he needs to communicate better), and does it all while getting her MBA! We don’t quite know how you do it, Leslie. Also, our EIT Pranava Bethi plays a huge role in all of our projects with AISD and is working on the CARTS Initiative, which is changing the face of transportation in East Austin– a part of Austin with historically less transportation and services than other regions of the city. We also can’t continue without mentioning the President of our sister company, Constructinople, Kenda Dawwammi Kasemi. Kenda is a Syrian immigrant who came to Austin in 2012. She studied Environmental Engineering in Syria and it’s now her mission to provide affordable housing for immigrants like her in the Austin community. Can you join us in saying “whaaaaaat?!?!”
The American Society of Civil Engineer’s Stephanie Slocum says that “The number one thing for a high performing team is trust.” She believes that listening and accepting different viewpoints is what leads to innovation and success, and that is a vital part of our mission here at Civilitude as well. We are a proud minority owned business and greatly cherish diversity. That’s why we’re lucky (how many times are we going to say lucky today?!) to have so many strong women as a part of our team! So, here’s to our women. We are more than thankful for you!