2021 Women in Construction: Katie Sullivan, Vice President/Human Resources, CM&B

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What was your greatest achievement or most notable project in the last 12 months? Without a doubt, my most notable achievement has been acting as CM&B’s COVID guru. With offices in Massachusetts and New York, and project sites throughout New England and the Tri-State area, tracking, implementing, and updating everchanging multi-state and Federal COVID safety/quarantine/travel/testing and now vaccine guidelines and requirements has demanded constant attention. Thankfully, and with the full support of CM&B’s senior management team, we have created safe work environments for our office staff who have been back in the office for the most part since June and our field team members who have been on site since the beginning of the pandemic. 

What are you most looking forward to post-pandemic? Professionally, I am looking forward to work environments free of masks, arrows on the floor, TEAMS meetings, temperature scanners and social distancing. I can’t wait for the time when there is no more fear of being a close contact or receiving a positive COVID test result. Though some impacts of COVID on the workplace are sure to be around for some time yet, hopefully we are not too far away from being able to come together as a company and celebrate the fact that we made it through these unprecedented times and came out stronger as a result.

How have you adapted and changed in the last 12 months? I have always been proactive, a planner, but COVID has reinforced the fact that even the best laid plans don’t always work out as envisioned. Frequently, since the beginning of the pandemic, there hasn’t been time to plan – only time to act. It has been fairly liberating to act on the fly under uncertain circumstances during unprecedented times with sometimes limited information and have the outcome be a positive one. I will always be a planner, but the past year has taught me I can trust my instincts and as long as I have the right goal in mind, successful planning can be spontaneous.

Why should women consider a career in the A/E/C industry? I guess my response would be why shouldn’t they? Opportunities abound in the industry for women seeking to carve a career path to reach their professional goals. The sky is the limit!