Reposted from Equal Rights Advocates.

Elly became a carpenter apprentice in 1985.

“I did not think at the time that this would be my career; I thought it would be one work experience among many in my life,” she says.“But I fell in love with it and never wanted to leave.”

Her 28-year career (and counting) began when she was at her second job out of college – at Non-traditional Employment for Women (NEW) in New York City – helping women access higher wage work in traditionally male-dominated occupations.

“I had no sense about whether I would be good at the trade, but my goal was to become an excellent carpenter,” she says. “I fell in love with the whole environment, the culture of the construction industry, from the fast paced work, to the changing locations and sites, and the wide variety and type of work. I owe my proficiency in this trade to the brothers who took the time and interest to show me not only how to do the work but also taught me about the business.”

Within six years of joining the carpenters union, Elly became a foreman for an architectural woodworking company. After several years as a foreman she joined the teaching staff at the New York City District Council of Carpenters Labor Technical College. There she developed and taught a new interior finish curriculum based on her years in the field. After that, she joined the staff of the NYCDCC Labor Management Corporation (LMC), where she eventually became executive director.

According to Elly, the biggest challenged she faced was isolation on the job. She was always the only woman on the carpenter crew and frequently the only woman on the site.

“The work itself was never beyond my ability or my strength, or any woman’s strength and ability. It’s about working smart.” She credits her stamina to a sense of humor and confidence in her abilities. “I was always confident that if I didn’t know a skill, I could learn it,” she says.

In 2005, after the first United Brotherhood of Carpenters “Sisters in the Brotherhood Conference,” Elly and the other five NYCDCC women who attended approached their leadership to start a women’s committee. The leadership gave the women the mailing list, space and support, and in return got a very active and politically involved women’s committee. Today, that committee is one of the larger active tradeswomen’s committees in the country: women from other trades attend meetings to get advice on setting up their own.

In October of 2011, Elly became the director of training at the Labor Technical College. There she oversees classes for the 11-12,000 journey level carpenters who come in to update their skills every year, as well as around 1,000 apprentices. Her goal is to work with her team to develop a modernized training facility for union use. Elly prioritizes diversity in her training programs (16% of apprentices at the NYCDCC are women and 70% are people of color). “I look forward to the day that diversity is the norm on all construction sites,” she says.