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The Daily Journal of Commerce聽on Aug. 2 held its second annual Building Diversity Awards and Education program to honor disadvantaged, minority-owned, women-owned, emerging small business and combat-disabled veteran-owned firms that are certified through the state of Oregon鈥檚 COBID program.
A total of 15 local firms and organizations were honored for their efforts to shape the built environment through outstanding work, leadership, mentorships, community involvement and promotion of industry diversity.
VIEW聽THE BUILDING DIVERSITY MAGAZINE
This year’s honorees included:
Business Diversity Institute
The Business Diversity Institute provides training and education to minority, women-owned and emerging small businesses in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
Complete Fusion Welding
Abdias Calixte, owner of Complete Fusion Welding, grew up in Haiti and began to learn the trades by working alongside his father, a preacher who also worked on houses.
The Cully Park building team
Several minority contractors teamed up to help build Cully Park, a recently-opened public space on a former landfill site in Northeast Portland.
Diverse Works
Painting and coating contractor Diverse Works has built a strong community of MWESB firms and frequently connects with them for advice and to share opportunities.
F M Burch and Associates
After working as the senior policy analyst for former Gov. Barbara Roberts, Faye Burch established her consulting firm, F M Burch and Associates, Inc., to help companies craft equity plans and execute them in the public and private sectors.
General Sheet Metal
Carol Duncan is the second generation at the helm of General Sheet Metal. Following her father鈥檚 retirement, she recognized the advantages of COBID certification and qualified for certification and recognition as a MWESB firm in 2000.
Global Transportation Engineering
Global Transportation Engineering, a small firm opened in 2015,has made an impression on the transportation construction industry in the Portland region.
Holst Architecture
Holst Architecture, Oregon鈥檚 largest WBE architecture firm, is taking steps to ensure pay equity, examined the gender parity among all office roles, and organized a series of in-house equity workshops about the progress made and work yet to be done.
J2J Civil Consulting
J2J Civil Consulting is an Albany-based firm that specializes in project management, construction inspection, surveying and engineering services. The company strives to provide opportunities for people who come from underserved areas and offers internships for young minority women and men attending college.
Just Right Heating and Cooling
Daniel Miranda and his wife, Jodie Marion, owners of Just Right Heating and Cooling, make it a point to share with and learn from the fellow MWESB businesses they hire as subcontractors.
Raleigh Lewis
Raleigh Lewis, who passed away earlier this year, spent over 30 years helping grow Oregon minority-owned and small businesses.
Oh planning+design, architecture
Deb France, opened Oh planning+design, architecture as a 100% woman-owned, full-service architectural firm in 2004. From the very beginning, France sought diversity as a factor in her business.
Portland Commercial Construction
Kurt McLaughlin, President and CEO of Portland Commercial Construction, is a leading force in COBID-oriented interactions in the construction community.
TriMet
Ask around the local building community about what public agencies are approaching diversity and inclusion right and you鈥檒l be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn鈥檛 mention TriMet. A reputation like that isn鈥檛 built overnight.
Whole Building Solutions
An early love of physics and a desire to do something useful and complex drew Christine McKinley to engineering, despite the fact that it was traditionally a male-dominated profession when she was growing up.
