Kelly Anne Ralston

I attribute my success to just never giving up and keeping going, even when things were incredibly difficult. I grew up without a lot of resources, so I've had a job since I was young and hard work is nothing new to me. When I was working on rubber membrane roofs for 10 hours a day with a baby and a toddler, it put me down to about 85 pounds - it was very, very difficult. But it was a stepping stone to where I am today. None of this would have been possible if I wouldn't have just kept going and kept going. I raised my kids alone, put myself through college while working two jobs, and I was the top of my class and the only girl. I'm a people person, which makes me ideal for my current role where I can take all my nerdy education and hard-working construction background and throw it all together. I finally made it to the top as a director, so the single mom became a director, and it feels really good to be in my 50s at a place where my kids are like, look at my mom go.

I want other women to see that you can do this. I've just heard too many times that girls do not want to work in a male-dominated field - they're scared of the math, they're scared of the hours, they think it's just going to be too difficult. But I haven't had a lot of issues, I've just worked really, really hard. I want the generations under me to see that it's possible, because there's a gap here. A lot of my generation is going to retire soon, and the younger generation is scared to go into our fields, so there's no one in the middle to take over for us. It's not as bad as you think it is from the outside looking in. There's a lot of wonderful people I've met over the years, a lot of incredible opportunities. I'm very, very lucky. It wasn't always like this for me - I had to work some pretty tough jobs - but it was a stepping stone to where I am today. Girls don't understand that there are so many more options, because no one's telling them, and there's not enough of me to tell them. The trades world right now is booming, and I think girls need to see that there's a lot of money to make. You don't have to be stuck serving tables. There's more to the eye than you think, and I get to go out and meet incredible people, travel, go to all of these events, and make my family proud.

The biggest challenge in my field right now is the generational gap. A lot of my generation is going to retire soon, and the younger generation is scared to go into our fields, so there's nothing in the middle - there's no one to take over for us. Women are just not in engineering anymore. When I first started college, it was bouncing between 11% and 13%, and now we're down to 9%. Even at my company with 200 people, we're having a hard time hiring engineers. There's just not enough coming out of colleges, and the ones that are coming out want to do environmental, mechanical, or robotics. They're not coming out wanting to do civil or transportation, and our jobs are really important - we build the highways, we build your sidewalks, we get those utilities going. I think it's just boring to them, and I'm trying to find a way to show women that it can be a little more exciting. It's very difficult to find anyone with an AEC background that can do business development, so apparently I'm a unicorn in this area.

The most important value to me is paying it forward. That's my number one goal - I just want to pay it forward. I grew up in a military family, and my children's father is a Marine, so if I can do anything to help veterans, I do. I don't have a lot of time, but I will make the time. I've been doing pro bono work for veteran charities for 10 years because these veterans want to stay in their homes and don't want to go to assisted living. When I was at Rankin, the YWCA was always trying to give me money around the holidays because I was a single mom, but I wouldn't take it because I had two jobs and was holding my ground. I always told them to give it to the other girls who didn't have the skill set that I had to work in the field. If I ever hit the lottery or had a big sum of money, I would be sponsoring every girl that goes through that program. I want to help other women see that this is possible, especially our younger generation. I'm trying to do my part on the mentoring side and the pioneering side. I have a daughter watching everything I do, and my son too, and they're proud of me. I just want to keep that momentum and show girls that there's a better understanding of what's possible in this field.