The National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), Fort Worth, Texas, has announced the winners of its Future Leader of the Year, Member of the Year and Lifetime Achievement awards.
The 2016 Future Leader of the Year Award winner, Sondra Friestad, is a member of NAWIC’s Fresno, California, chapter. Friestad is a project manager with Highlands Diversified Inc. and the owner of iKlectic Muse! She serves as vice president, public relations and marketing chair and social sidelines events chair of her chapter. Friestad rekindled her chapter’s relationship with the local builder’s exchange and has organized a blueprint-reading seminar, landscaping for a local nonprofit safe house, a Women Build week, and a Mardi Bra donation event, according to NAWIC.
Carol L. Chapman will be recognized as NAWIC’s 2016 Member of the Year. Chapman is the owner of Mobile Construction Co. and a past national president of NAWIC. Since joining the Charlotte, North Carolina, chapter in 1991, she has been an active member, and is currently serving as NAWIC’s South Atlantic Region Membership chair. This year Chapman has recruited 11 new members for her chapter and earned her Red Rose Recruiter jacket. She also helped organize a Construction Career Day event for more than 600 students, says NAWIC.
The winner of NAWIC’s 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award, Pam Dullum, has been a member of NAWIC since 1985. Dullum is currently a member of NAWIC’s Greater Phoenix, Arizona, chapter. She has served as a region director, held every office on her chapter’s board and chaired eight chapter committees, two region committees and one national committee. She mentors women in the construction industry, volunteers with the American Council for Construction Education, helped revamp the NAWIC Education Foundation’s CCA program, interviews scholarship applicants for NFSF as well as many other efforts, says NAWIC. She is a senior forensic civil engineer with Gervasio & Assoc. Inc.
Friestad, Chapman and Dullum will be honored at the NAWIC Awards Gala on Aug. 19 during NAWIC’s 61st Annual Meeting and Education Conference in San Antonio, Aug. 17-20, 2016. NAWIC members from across the country will gather at the Grand Hyatt San Antonio for the conference.
NAWIC says the mission of the awards is to recognize outstanding efforts of its members. The Future Leader of the Year Award is presented to a new member of NAWIC who has been actively involved in the association throughout her first two years. The Member of the Year Award is given to a NAWIC member who has been actively involved in association activities throughout the current NAWIC year. The Lifetime Achievement Award was established to recognize the lifetime contribution of a NAWIC member to the association.
NAWIC is an international association serving 127 chapters across the United States. It was founded as Women in Construction of Fort Worth, Texas, in 1953 to enhance the success of women in the construction industry. In 1955, the charter was expanded to allow chapters to form across the country, creating NAWIC. The association has expanded to include international affiliates in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and the United Kingdom.