Women in construction today make up just 10.9 percent of the entire U.S. construction workforce, according to a 2022 Bureau of Labor Statistics Current Population Survey, a monthly survey of households that provides a comprehensive body of data on the labor force, unemployment, earnings, as well as demographic and other labor force characteristics

Anne M. Ellis, P.E., Hon.M.ACI, F.ASCE, NAC is a recognized structural engineer, industry trailblazer, and champion of innovation to improve our built environment. Her career extends over four decades, six continents, and numerous boundary-spanning corporate roles enabling dynamic growth and innovation in technology, business, and operations.

In celebration of May’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we spoke with NIBS Board Member Evelyn Fujimoto, Associate AIA, RID, LEED AP, and Principal with STG Design. Here’s what Fujimoto shared with us.

How did you get started in the built environment?

Susan Maxman remembers when the architecture profession was predominantly male.

She attended Smith College. While attending this all-female institution, Maxman was told time and again that women could achieve whatever they wanted – the same as men. But this was a time when the majority of the female population was not in the workforce, but rather staying home to raise their children.

To Nancy Novak, Chief Innova­tion Officer with Compass Datacenters, there’s no stronger currency than data.

Everything is data-related – whether it’s understanding disease better, advancing education, battling climate change in the environment, extending welfare services, or training our military – all of it leads to the goal of having a more peaceful globe on which to live.

Early in Sandra Benson’s career, she was the only female in the company’s engineering department. She overheard someone say that she was going to be a “great booth babe.”

Benson laughs about it now.

“I said, ‘I will never be a booth babe,’” said Benson, Worldwide Head of Engineering, Construction and Real Estate with Amazon Web Services. “If anyone ever talked with me about any sales roles, I was a nope.”

When New York was recovering from 9/11, the rebuild effort was monumental.

Small and large companies across the built environment turned up to help. U.S. Customs reached out to one of its firms – Reston, Virginia-based Marshall Group Architects – to do some renovation work in the Big Apple.

Then U.S. Customs requested more help, and the Marshall family hopped on a train.