Angela Coldwell is an award winning chemistry and physics teacher. She founded Honour The Work as a result of conversations with industry members who shared how K-12 students and adults generally aren't aware of how rewarding and diverse, skilled trades and AEC careers can be. Combining a love of hands-on learning, educational research, and project…

Based in South-Western Ontario, Build a Dream is an organization that delivers specialized programs to encourage and empower women and girls to explore careers where women are under-represented, while also working to create a gender-balanced workforce and change global perspectives on women’s contribution to society. McKenna Goodwin is a Red Seal E…

Michelle McCollum has over 30 years of experience in construction. Her career started in Edinburgh, Scotland where she spent 15 years working in municipal government. In 2008, she and her family moved to Canada. Today, she is Vice-President, Facilities and Sustainability, for George Brown College where she leads the development and deployment of th…

McKenna Goodwin is a Red Seal Endorsed General Carpenter from Ottawa, Ontario. She started her apprenticeship framing houses at age 16 and completed her apprenticeship with UBCJA Local 93 at age 21. Today, McKenna is a Career Coach for the non-profit organization Build a Dream and works directly with tradeswomen and industry partners to improve the…

Camryn Malaney grew up in a family deeply rooted in construction. Hailing from Buffalo, New York, she inherited her passion for the industry from her father, who has been working in development throughout her whole life. Today, she is the Director of Construction for Habitat for Humanity South Sarasota. The role allows her to work in her deep-seate…

Adrienne Clarke and Jami Snow return for a different kind of episode. Adrienne and Jami have worked together at Aecon just over a year leading an innovative joint venture called Aecon-Golden Mile. AGM was created to expand economic opportunities for residents of the Greater Golden Mile that are facing barriers to the labour market. In that short ti…

Dee Durant is an electrical apprentice working towards her 309A Construction Maintenance electrical license. She is also a KickAss careers ambassador, a co-host of a talk show called Building Resilience on YouTube, and a former Weston scholar. Through her work and volunteerism, she encourages others to consider a career in the skilled trades, under…

Jami Snow has been working in construction for 11 years. Starting out as a temporary ground person with IBEW, she worked as a labourer on a solar farm, assembling a-frames & installing solar panels. Over time, her passion for the industry grew as she completed heavy equipment training and got her AZ license. In 2019, she saw a job posting for Aecon…

Cheyanne Hammell is the Manager of Special Projects for PCL Constructors, Toronto. In 2007 she graduated from Mohawk College with an Architectural Technology diploma in Construction Management. Today, with more than 18 years of experience in the construction industry, she is a visionary leader, driven and inspired by the thrill of construction and …

Jamie McMillan became an ironworker in 2002 when women only represented 2% of ironworkers across Canada and the United States. In 2012 she founded KickAss Careers, a grassroots initiative creating awareness and encouraging those of all ages and walks of life to consider careers in underrepresented occupations through school and community outreach. …

Just over a year ago, Jade Schaal was a teacher, specifically an ABA paraprofessional working with students on the autism spectrum. A gut instinct told her that the trades needed to be her next adventure and she took a leap of faith. Today, she is a sheet metal apprentice working in an HVAC fabrication shop and attending school through the union 2 …

Adrienne Clarke joined Aecon in 2006 and has worked in many areas including running the utility locate team, the change-management department, and project management of the training and innovation centre. Today, in the position of General Manager she is responsible for Aecon Utilities Training and Innovation Centre, Aecon Golden Mile Joint Venture,…

Victoria Monardo has been working in construction for 10 years. She is currently a full-time machine operator for a sewer and water crew with Hebster Construction. Over the years she has developed a wide variety of skills within general construction especially in landscaping. In her spare time, she runs her own landscape construction business, buil…

Jess Deyong co-founded dollHOUSE design + build in April 2020 at the height of the Covid 19 pandemic. Over the next three years, Jess has guided the business through approximately 75 renovations to Century Homes in Hamilton, Ontario. From kitchens to bathrooms and basements to attics, Jess aims to juxtapose old and new to create vibrant, functional…

In a past life, Kelly McNamara worked as a Kinesiologist, doing functional assessments and ergonomic consulting for industry. Today she is an Apprentice Carpenter with Freestone Construction in Fernie, British Columbia. Pursuing carpentry full-time has altered her trajectory in such a positive way that, as she says: "I can’t NOT share this journey.…

Carys Cao has been on a number of career paths ranging from teaching to insurance and even some work in corrections. Today she is a Journeyperson Handyman with LiUNA 183. She currently works new homes in their final stages, just before closing, cleaning up any minor deficiencies before the new homeowner moves in. She also services the warranty prog…

Sparky, Boots & Smoko's Live Panel is a collaboration of Lia Lamela, Alexis Armstrong and our own Lindsay Reynolds. These three ladies have come together as fellow podcasters and passionate advocates of story-telling and open conversation about women and other under-represented goups in in STEM, Trades and the Construction Industry. This episode is…

Zoe Bilcke has been building her career in the trades for nearly 5 years. She started in landscape maintenance before making the shift to crane operation. Today she works for Paramount Alliance and is just seconds away from completing her apprenticeship with the 793 operators union. Zoe will be the first female crane operator that I've ever met and…

Fair Trades Toolbox has a mission to educate skilled trades employers on how to integrate women into their male-dominated workforce and to change the culture of the skilled trades industry for the better. At the head of Fair Trades is Brandi Ferenc, a Red Seal 313A Refrigeration Mechanic/Gas Fitter 1 Journey person with over 20 years in the trade. …

Jessica Bannister is a 3rd generation HVAC contractor. Her dad apprenticed under his dad in the 1970’s and her brother followed in his footsteps right after high school. But the trades were never considered as an option for her and so she went the traditional route of college and took an office job. In 2017, she joined Cam Cool as an admin but by M…

In our very first She Wears Work Boots Conversations episode, we talk to Alexis Armstrong, host of the Smoko Podcast. Smoko exists to highlight the work and stories of women and female-identifying folks in STEM, trades and other non-traditional roles. In this episode, Alexis and Lindsay kick-back, relax and discuss the importance of projects like S…

Chloe Arsenault is a fairly recent graduate of the civil and mining engineering program at College Boreal and currently works as a field technician at NSS Canada. Her work takes her to mines all across Canada and even overseas. While her career choice is pretty cool, her hobbies make it even cooler as Chloe continues to follow her passion for pagea…

Molly Allgood went to university and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Honours Human Kinetics. Throughout University she spent the summers working up in Parry Sound Ontario building, renovating, and repairing cottages. She also helped with the work to open and close them, and although she loved it, it didn't seem like a career. Besides, at th…

Lauren Petro is an Environmental Engineer. For the past 7 years she has been working on large-scale environmental remediation projects that often involve mine or landfill closures or large amounts of contaminated soil. Over the course of her career she has also developed a passion for advocacy for women in construction and hopes to inspire more wom…

Julia Rose Lundvall is a Red Seal Brick and Stone Mason working and adventuring through Toronto, Ontario. She started her journey in the trades after many years of struggle, perceiving it as a last chance and only option. Having no prior experience in construction she took the ultimate leap of faith, and after years of hard work, struggle and accom…

Elyse Chiu's road to drywall finishing started with a rental property. She had been working as a paramedic in Toronto for 14 years when she and her wife bought a house and started renovating, and something in there sparked a fascination with mudding and taping. She continued in her EMS career while renovating on the side, but everything changed in …

Marina Ramos has been working in construction for a decade. She has been on all types of projects from commercial and retail, pharmaceutical and industrial all the way to residential high-rise. Her extensive knowledge in BIM Management and Scheduling has been core to her career. Marina uses her knowledge and skill to liaise with consultants and tra…

Veronica Da Luca has been working as a structural designer and Engineer for about 11 years. Her work has a significant focus on cold formed steel framing (otherwise known as steel studs) which is a very niche market within the Engineering world. Today, she is Division Manager of the Toronto office for Building Structures with MTE, while still manag…

Patricia Robinson is a testament to the importance of those women in trades who are sharing their stories. Her journey towards a carpentry apprenticeship was literally inspired by all the women she saw posting about their awesome careers on social media. Feeling drawn toward carpentry and trades for so many reasons, she started with a wood-working …

Emily Lynch is a Labour Apprentice with LiUNA local 183 working on Highrise construction projects in downtown Toronto. Just over 2 years ago she stared sharing small parts of her work and career journey on Instagram in hopes to inspire other girls and women to look at construction as a serious career path. In her feed she shares about everything fr…

Christina Murray has demolition in her blood. After graduating from high-school, she started working on sites as a labourer and eventually took on heavy equipment operation and dump-truck driving. Her choice made her the 4th generation of her family to work in Demolition. In 2009 Christina joined Budget Environmental as the Demolition Estimator. Th…

Paige Heron has been a carpenter since she was 19 years old. It all started with a week off in her first year of fire-fighting college and encouragement from her dad to go work for a millwork company. Carpentry was just a summer gig, until college was done, but she loved it so much that she jumped into a pre-apprenticeship and hasn't looked back. A…

Jennifer Green started her skilled trades career in high school as an Industrial Mechanic Millwright. Today, she is the Director of Competitions at Skills Ontario. Jennifer has been labelled a fearless trailblazer and glass-ceiling breaker for women in non-traditional careers, and continues to advocate and be a leader in the skilled trades communit…

Leanne Stephenson has been working in project management for general contractors for 15-plus years. She grew up in a small town, raised in a working class family daughter and granddaughter of carpenters and found her own path to construction through the co-operative education program at Fanshawe College. Most of her career has primarily focused on …

Terry Petrie is an experienced Construction Project Manager with nearly 20 years in the industry. Her well-rounded career has included Institutional, Commercial, Renovation, Facility Management, and complex Design-Build Finance Maintain projects. In short - she has been exposed to everything. Throughout her career she has engaged in stakeholder man…

Mahtab Pezhman graduated from the University of Toronto with a civil engineering bachelor's degree and a business minor in 2018, but instead of working for an Engineering firm, she found a career in construction coordination and project management. She quickly realized that what she enjoys the most is the broader perspective of the construction ind…

Kristi Slade has been taping and finishing drywall since she was 16 years old. A woman of many talents, she worked to pursue a few different careers and hobbies including taping, cooking, and restoration. Kristi pursued all these equally until a friend introduced her to the taper's union and a career in commercial drywall finishing. It has been alm…

Tamika Tulloch is a Millennial Mother to a three-year old son and has recently started her apprenticeship as a Labourer with LiUNA. Before construction she was an educational assistant for ten years where she spent her days molding the young minds of the future but her teams were understaffed, underpaid, and overworked and she always had this feeli…

Lia Lamela spent over a decade in medial esthetics, but recently went from Botox to bolts, faces to fixtures, esthetics to electronics, and has now traded in beauty treatments for an electrifying life! Today she is an electrical apprentice specializing in building automation and the host of The Sparky Life Podcast. In this episode we talk about the…

Mira Polski has wanted to be a carpenter since she was just 5 years old. In high school she took all the woodworking courses including a dual credit program and graduated with college credits in welding, masonry, plumbing, electrical, and (of course) carpentry! A summer co-op on a framing crew set her up with a company she continued to work for whi…

Sarah Osterlee has been landscaping since she was 13, by 18 she earned her Red Seal and at 20 years old she received an associates diploma from the University of Guelph Ridgetown. Today, she is a Red Seal Horticulturalist who owns an operates her own landscaping and gardening company, called Empress Gardens. Sarah struggled with ADD her whole life …

Rylie Swanson started working for Rubaroc straight out of university, after graduating with a degree in business. She was initially hired as as a communications assistant with the role of managing the socials, website and other marketing activities. Her past experience in cinematography, web design and digital design, made this a great fit. As part…

Elizabeth Juarez currently works as a Journey Level Instrument Mechanic for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. She boldly left college at 22 to pursue this career with no background in the utility industry and has been learning it all on the job. Now, with nearly 10 years under her belt, her femininity has become her superpower, and she…

Alicia Woods started working in the mining and supply service sector over 20 years ago as part her family's business. She started in administration and sales and over 15 years, worked her way to General Manager. Motivated by her own experiences on site, she set out to improve the underground mining experience for women and designed the covergall (f…

Shawna Peddle has been working on the tools as an HVAC service technician since 2018, she started in residential and recently made a switch to commercial. Shawna now works at TRI-AIR Systems as a third year 313A/G1 HVACR Apprentice. She's also a member of UA Local 787, Ontario's Commercial Refrigeration Union. Shawna loves diagnostic troubleshootin…

Sydney Schultz is a Red Seal Power-line Technician Journeyman for SaskPower in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. She was born in Weyburn, Saskatchewan and grew up on a farm with two younger brothers. Out of high school she was encouraged to pursue university but realized it just wasn't for her. Instead she found her way to drilling and worked in the…

Shannon Tymosko started her electrical apprenticeship at the age of 31 after her first career as a Child and Youth Worker just couldn't pay the bills. Her journey to the trades was supported by the YWCA Hamilton's pre-apprenticeship programs. Today, she is a third year apprentice with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers local 105, i…

Laura Hutt went to Algonquin College for Civil Engineering Technology. She started her career in coordination and assistant project management roles for restoration and civil construction companies. While working for PCL Construction in Ottawa she had the opportunity to work an out of town project and move into site supervision. Shortly after start…

Tessa Ferzli has been a 402A Red Seal Brick and Stone Mason since 2020. She was just 21 at the time making her Canada's youngest female red seal mason. Unlike most of our interviews to date, Tessa actually came to masonry through a Home-Building course in high school, after trying her hand at everything from pouring foundations to shingling roofs, …

Lorraine Kearsey-Carter is a Certified Psychological Health and Safety Advisor and the President of Rubicon Safety, a company that she founded in 2012 to focus on fall-protection, confined space and rescue solutions. She has over 20 years of Sales & Project Management experience in the Construction & Building Industry, and holds many certificates i…