As the Project Outreach Manager for the Joint Venture, I work closely with the Local Business Enterprise community while ensuring the project meets the City & County of San Francisco’s Local Hire workforce policy. Throughout the five years I have been part of the BDFP team, I have learned so much and have grown both personally and professionally. Working closely with city agencies, contractors, and community-based organizations, I see firsthand how teamwork delivers exceptional results. I am thankful that my day-to-day responsibilities allow me to work with two of my passions: policy and community. This project has brought the best of the best to deliver a legacy project for the city of San Francisco while providing economic opportunity to the Bayview-Hunters Point.

There is a shared commitment to the project. Even though all parties have their positions and interests, everyone genuinely wants to provide the best quality project and be proud to be associated with it. Most of what I do involves the negotiation of change orders to arrive at a fair price for both the SFPUC and for the CMGC and its trade contractors. There’s a tremendous volume of work, given the number of trade contracts involved. Navigating all the logistics takes a lot of organizational skills, technical skills, and people skills. I like that I can use all of these on a daily basis.

As a female engineer, I am heartened to see so many women involved in the project and taking leadership roles in the trailers and on the construction site. I am happy to make tangible progress on this large project. Every day you drive by you can see the physical progress. This project has allowed me to get involved in so many different activities and redefine the boundaries of my comfort zone.

The design for the project incorporated some very innovative technology which will be very exciting to see in final operation. The project is an opportunity for me to see a project from a preliminary design to construction to startup and commissioning. The technological complexity, the magnitude of the scope and the challenge of doing construction in a small, already operating wastewater treatment plant is what makes the BDFP unique. I enjoy the opportunity to interact closely with engineers, managers, planners, operators and contractors all with different experience and skill sets. The project is challenging and stimulating, and the collaborative nature of the teams makes a huge difference.