What is your favorite project you worked on and why?
The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center in South Boston, MA remains my favorite project because I really enjoyed working with the CM project team – a joint venture between Clark Construction, Hunt Construction, and Berry Construction.  After 4 years, this team felt like my extended family.  Our Office Manager felt like my mother away from home, and my supervisors were great mentors.  It always comes down to the people, doesn’t it?

How did you get into construction?
I majored in Architecture at the University of Virginia for my undergraduate degree.  During my 4^th year in college, one of the executives, Susan Ross from Clark Construction, came to UVA Architecture school to recruit from the graduating class.  Subsequently, I participated in a 1-week externship at Clark Construction’s headquarters in Bethesda, MD over Winter Break, where they rotated me through their major departments.  The externship made me realize that construction management was a better fit for me than a career in design.  I started working for Clark Construction full-time in 1998 and the rest is history.

Who or what inspires you?
My mother, now in her 80’s, inspires me to approach life with optimism, generosity, resilience, and grace. She lived through several wars in Vietnam, moved our family as refugees to China, and then later as a widow, moved our family to the United States.  She is smart, industrious, and amazingly resilient.  In addition to working as a Math teacher, she used to raise pigs, grow peanuts, ferment vegetables, mill grains, slaughter chickens, etc. in order to feed her family.  When we moved to the United States, she worked at a drapery factory for the minimum wage to support us.  Because my father passed away when I was 3, my mother was my role model growing up, and she inspires me to this day.  She is generous with her heart, quick to compliment, and tackles setbacks with composure and grace.

What is one thing on your bucket list and will you accomplish it?
One of my favorite meals is congee (rice porridge). I would like to open my own congee restaurant when I am retired. The ingredients will be wholesome and allergen friendly.   If all the stars align financially, I will construct this restaurant sustainably so that the building will create more energy than it consumes, and all building materials will be regenerative.  If this restaurant endeavor is successful, I will build more restaurants modeled on the same nutrition and sustainability principles.  Wish me luck!