HAZARD GIRLS

The Wall Street Journal’s poster girl for pandemic career burnout Sara McElroy sits down with Host Emily Soloby to discuss her journey from Chief Marketing Officer to founder of Raze to Rise – an organization created to amplify women’s voices from the Great Resignation. Her journey took her through Peru’s Sacred Valley (with a few stops at the Emergency Room along the way), ultimately returning to...

Tasanee Durrett has spent her life surrounded by strong, resilient, powerful women, so it’s no surprise that she has turned into one herself. As a double minority professional working in the architecture and construction spaces, Tasanee has had to learn to find her voice and build her confidence in order to thrive. And thrive she has! Inspired by the iconic buildings of her hometown, Tasanee knew...

“Hazard Girls is about women in male-populated industries.” Today on the Hazard Girls Podcast, we are discussing what we do on this podcast! You will hear all about why we do the podcast, what our mission is, whom we interview, and why we need to shift the terminology from “Male Dominated” to “Male Populated.” We go through some examples of great episodes we’ve done, look at Emily’s interview proc...

With us today is Nancy Surak. She is a Senior Advisor and Managing Broker for the Tampa Bay office of the Land Advisors Organization. Nancy has more than 20 years of commercial real estate experience and has specialized in land brokerage since 2005. Tune in as we dive deeper into the commercial real estate industry to get up close and personal insight from Nancy. We take a close look at Nancy's pr...

Joining us today on the Hazard Girls podcast is the inspirational Jennifer Todd. Jennifer is a lawyer, the founder of an NPO called A Greener Tomorrow, and the founder and president of LMS General Contractors and is here with us to discuss being a woman in the construction industry. We discuss Jennifer’s journey to getting her law degree, starting her company and her NPO, and the importance of hav...

The entrepreneurs who win the ‘game’ are the ones who keep going when the going gets tough! Joining us today on Hazard Girls is the CEO of Health-Ade, Daina Trout. Daina has an impressive resume and is passionate about gut health. In this episode, you will hear all about the positive effect kombucha and other fermented foods have on your health, the difference between prebiotics, probiotics, and p...

As women in construction today, we deal with microaggressions in the workplace. But what was it like when sexism was a blatant part of women’s working lives? Here to tell us all about this is author of Tower of Lies, Trump’s ‘woman in construction,’ and incredible speaker, Barbara Res. Today on Hazard Girls we discuss Barbara’s illustrious career starting from her studies in construction all the w...

According to the US Department of Agriculture, Americans waste more than $161 billion each year on food, with most of it ending up in landfills. Our guest, interviewed by host Emily Soloby of Juno Jones Shoes, is a creative problem solver on a mission to end this kind of household food waste. Chef Alison Mountford is the founder of ends+stems, a meal planning service designed to reduce food waste...

Transitioning from one male-dominated industry to another is not easy, but it is something our guest, Jhanel Wilson, has managed to do successfully. Jhanel is a Philadelphia-based chemical engineer turned real estate investor with a portfolio of over 10 million dollars. Her strategy focuses on small multifamily buy-and-hold, and she now teaches others in STEM jobs how to generate wealth through re...

There appears to be a growing trend of women and minorities pursuing careers in STEM, but there is still a long way to go. Only 17 percent of civil engineers in the US are women, while minorities make up approximately 31 percent of civil engineers nationwide. And while many women and minorities may obtain a degree in STEM subjects, the likelihood of them staying within that field is far from certa...

Women have always been perceived to be weaker and less physically capable than men and the freedom that today’s children have has taken many years to achieve. Today on Hazard Girls we are joined by Emily’s mom, Rosemarie Heldrich Kiser. Rosemarie was a female track runner in the 1960s; a time when women did not have a constitutional right to play sports in schools. Rosemarie shares what it was lik...

Women in the safety industry need allies and the space to find their own voices! More importantly, PPE needs to be designed specifically for women’s bodies to ensure safety and efficiency. Joining us on the Hazard Girls podcast is the co-founder of the Iowa Women and Safety Conference and founder of The Safety Rack, Amy Roosa. First off, Amy tells us how she got started with the conference, who it...

As a woman in the construction industry, all you want is to be treated as an equal in the workplace. Joining us today to discuss this topic is the director of Crew Collaborative, Kristina Mahler. We talk about how far the company has come since we last met with Kristina, the difficulties of starting a non-profit organization during a pandemic, and the company’s Classroom Talks and Ambassador Progr...

Welcome to another installment of the Hazard Girls Podcast! Today on the show we get together with Nora Casanova, the Logistics Manager at Karsten Interior Services, a commercial construction subcontractor in Houston, Texas. Nora has three degrees to her name, including International Business, Supply Chain Management, and Entrepreneurship from the University of Texas, and is currently enrolled in...

Navigating your time and boundaries while creating a business you love and cultivating client relationships is no easy feat. As a woman, being able to accomplish these things comes with even more challenges. Using more than 30 years of experience, Pamela explores all things networking, giving us a look at techniques that we can use, both online and in-person, to get to know people better and creat...

Knowing what drives your ambition is a key aspect of what motivates you to keep going! Without figuring that out for yourself first, you’re much more likely to give up on goals. Our guest on today’s episode of Hazard Girls is Andrea Janzen. She is the founder of Ambition Theory, a professional coaching and leadership development company focused on accelerating women in the construction industry in...

Today’s guest has been in the construction industry since the 80s, a time when gender equality was not what it is today. Julie Laughton is a designer, general contractor, and the CEO of Julie Laughton Custom Homes, a unique one-stop-shop design-build service. Between New York City, where she began her career, and Orange County, California, where she is now based, Julie has designed over 500 spaces...

As part of our series of chats with diversity specialists, today we're speaking with Mercedes Gamor. Mercedes is the first-ever Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Specialist at Prime Electric, one of the most prolific electrical construction contractors on the West Coast of the US. Today, she joins us to talk about how Prime Electric is going above and beyond just ‘checking the diversity box’. Tunin...

There is a distinct difference between building a sellable business and building yourself a glorified job. Returning to the show to preach the importance of starting with the end in mind and planning your exit, is the admirable Michelle Sieler Tucker. Michelle is a world-renowned expert in the field of mergers and acquisitions, and a leading authority on buying, selling, and improving businesses....

Futurists are people who plan for the future by looking at trends and identifying what’s coming instead of only looking at the past. To explain more about this profession and the profound value it offers, today we are joined by Rebecca Ryan, a top 50 professional futurist, as well as an economist, best-selling author, and entrepreneur. She is also on the executive committee of the Global Associati...

Our guest today is Libby Mendiratta, the Executive Vice President at G.E. Frisco Company, a family-owned business specializing in supplying lumber and building materials across the Mid-Atlantic region. Libby has been in the construction industry for over 20 years and she oversees the entire division of the business that serves state and federal contracts. She is also the chair of the Women Buildin...

Joining us in conversation today is Kuma Roberts, Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer at Arrowhead Consulting. Tune in to learn the difference between ‘DEI’ and ‘D and I’, and why the focus has shifted from the latter to the former. You’ll hear why everyone has something to contribute to the conversation around diversity, and how it doesn’t begin and end with skin color. Kuma is more concerned a...

A few years ago, a house in Utah was built by a team made up entirely of women. Today’s guest, Mollie Elkman, is the owner and president of Group Two, and she and her team were responsible for the sales and marketing side of the build. As the project was nearing an end, Mollie saw the potential of this story to positively impact the lives of so many women and girls, and she embarked on a journey o...

The "command and control" leadership style is common within many organizations, but in today’s episode, we’re going to be discussing why a more inclusive and collaborative form of leadership holds so much value. Today’s guests are Shannon Karels and Kathy Miller, both of whom have had many years of experience leading manufacturing operations and implementing lean transformations. A lean transforma...

Architecture is a unique career that bridges the gap between the worlds of construction and art, and most architects have creative hobbies. Today’s guest made her creative hobby a full-time job when, after 15 years as an architect, she transitioned into the world of sustainable fashion in 2019. Namita Reddy is a professional architect and the founder of Samsara Sari, a sustainable clothing brand m...