Ginger Gassen

My career in construction management has been an adventure that unfolded organically over more than 25 years. When I first got out of college, I went into project management and worked for McDonnell Douglas, where I got really good at learning their processes and procedures for managing large projects. After I got married and had children, I stayed home as a full-time mom, and when I came back into the workforce, I really didn't know what I was qualified to do. A construction management firm hired me despite the fact that I had never worked in construction prior to that, and they put me on a $2.5 billion airport expansion. I worked under people who mentored me and showed me how to do what they do. To this day, they took a gamble on me, and what I do today is all rooted in what they taught me then. Currently, I work on a $2 billion transmission substation project for the state of Nevada, for Nevada Energy. I oversee the program costs and schedule and document control and all the people that support those functions. I work hand-in-hand with the project management teams and let them focus on what's going on in the field, and I support what goes on administratively on the back side to support them, as well as take care of the client deliverables every week. This project is challenging because it's the first, largest transmission line construction ever undertaken in the United States. Every day's a new day, every day is a new challenge, and I love putting all the pieces together on the jigsaw to make it happen.