Women in Engineering A Year in Review
2025 Highlights Mission Statement
We ensure that Altieri is a champion of women’s personal and professional growth in the industry and community. We entered 2025 with momentum, setting ambitious goals inspired by the great work accomplished in 2024. During the year, we focused on supporting our new community (as a result of our office move), engaging and inspiring high school and college students as they consider future careers, expanding our ally base, and planning a team outing to bring everyone together. Read on to learn more about our accomplishments!
Amanda at The New York Historical
Sara at The Obama Presidential Center
Nona & Alexa at The Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum
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Superlatives To celebrate and support each other, we introduced Superlatives! Each participant was paired with a woman colleague to engage, learn more about her, and select a superlative that best reflected her unique strengths. This activity encouraged meaningful connections beyond our day-to-day teams and reinforced the importance of recognizing and uplifting the many diverse contributions of our colleagues. Recognition emerged as a central theme for us this year, which we carried into our second annual JEDI session (read more about this on page 5).
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We continued to learn from and be inspired by others in our industry, by welcoming two guest speakers to our monthly meetings. Kerry Nolan, AIA, Principal at Beyer Blinder Belle, shared her professional journey and the experiences that shaped her path to leadership. Monica Nelson, Product Management Specialist at Gilbane, offered insight into her role and highlighted how AI is being integrated into the construction industry. These conversations broadened our perspective, sparked meaningful dialogue, and reinforced the value of sharing diverse career stories within our community.
Monthly meeting with guest speaker, Monica Nelson
Intern Interview Series As part of an ongoing summer initiative, Altieri interns once again contributed to the wom(EN)gineer blog. Each intern interviewed a woman engineer at Altieri using the same set of questions, revealing how varied experiences and answers can be within the same field. Through these conversations, the interns gained a deeper understanding of the profession and carried those lessons back to school where they continue their journeys toward becoming successful engineers.
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School Outreach Outreach remained a major focus this year as we completed six presentations at local schools, including Brookfield High School (Brookfield, CT), John Jay High School (Cross River, NY), Lauralton Hall (Milford, CT), P-Tech Norwalk (Norwalk, CT), School of the Holy Child (Rye, NY), and Wilton High School (Wilton, CT). At each visit, we shared what Architectural Engineering is and highlighted the wide range of career paths available within the field, helping students envision possibilities they may not have previously considered. Additionally, our team connected with college students through several career fairs. Kristen Butts and Angelica Hermanto returned to their alma mater to represent Altieri at The Pennsylvania State University Architectural Engineering Career Fair, while Alexa Fiorica traveled to Providence, RI to attend Brown University’s career fair. These opportunities allowed us to engage with students at pivotal moments in their academic journeys and continue building relationships with the next generation of engineers.
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JEDI Session
Angelica with Lauralton Hall students
We hosted our second annual JEDI session with interested staff for a conversation focused on support and recognition. Turns out, being valued is a universal topic! The discussion, kicked off by a brief look at how women and men feel differently about being valued and supported in the workplace, included stories about being recognized (and not), sharing thoughts about the importance of appreciation, and identifying the types of recognition that are most effective and meaningful. The session certainly underscored the benefits of workplace recognition. Participants left with a sense of feeling heard, understood, and recognized, and ready to prioritize and improve the way we support one another in the workplace.
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Community Giving Donation Drive
In the spirit of supporting our new community following our office move, Altieri’s Women in Engineering group selected a local organization for this year’s donation drive: Pet Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in Norwalk, just a mile from our office. Founded in 1962, PAWS is a nonprofit organization that rescues and re-homes hundreds of dogs and cats each year. Our staff came together to donate much-needed supplies to support both the animals and the dedicated staff and volunteers. It was incredibly rewarding to see the gratitude from the PAWS team when we delivered our donations. As an added bonus, we were invited to tour the facility and meet some of the adoptable animals.
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Team Building Goat Yoga
We have talked about a group goat yoga class for a while and finally made it happen! Grow Wellness hosted us (and our male allies) for a yoga session, while Got Your Goat, LLC brought the star guests: the goats! We had a great time doing yoga poses as baby goats climbed on us, nibbled our hair, and snuggled up beside us. We aren’t sure who had more fun, us or the goats!
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Making bold visions work