Photo courtesy of Emily Waldron
Amidst the heavy machinery and the daily coordination of dozens of trades, Emily Waldron is helping to oversee the $190 million renovation and expansion of the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta. When complete, the facility will rival the Georgia World Congress Center, where the SkillsUSA National Leadership & Skills Conference (NLSC) is held.
Waldron, a senior project manager with Holder Construction, is also helping to inspire a new generation of builders. In June she will lead a behind the scenes tour for SkillsUSA students participating in the Immersive Experience: Construction program taking place during NLSC.
“This project is about 50 percent done so there will be a lot of different trades working,” Waldron says. “There will be a lot of cool things going on.”
The job requires Waldron to stay on-site full time in an office in the trailer compound. And while most contractors are focused on tasks that will be completed over the next six weeks, she is troubleshooting six months out to navigate around potential hurdles or roadblocks — issues that could slow down progress.
“I make sure things are thought-through so the boots on the ground group are able to keep going,” Waldron says. “With the site superintendent, we oversee the schedule. We make the big picture decisions.”
The Perfect “In Between”
Born and raised in Franklin, Waldron grew up with an engineering mindset. She remembers spending hours playing with Legos and had an innate ability to visualize complex structures in 3D.
With an eye on a future career in architecture, she enrolled in the four-year drafting program at Centennial High School. The curriculum included a year of hand drafting, a year of computer-aided design (CAD), and two years of higher-level classwork. Architecture was interesting with its focus on layout and the flow of things, but one day Waldron’s class got to mix concrete.
“I thought, this is so cool! I remember that vividly,” she says, and realized that a career in construction management could offer “a perfect in-between” combining architecture and engineering.
At the same time, Waldron’s drafting teacher and mentor, Tim Sawyer, encouraged her to participate in SkillsUSA, where she competed in the project interview category. She recalls Sawyer coached her presentation, from how to dress for a professional interview to crafting responses to potential technical questions.
“With the judges, I was trying to sell them on my expertise,” she says.
That hard work paid off when, as a junior, Waldron won the gold medal at the state level and went on to compete at the SkillsUSA Championships then held in Kansas City, Mo.
Waldron credits that experience with giving her the confidence to speak publicly, a skill she is called upon to use often in her career, including a recent presentation on construction project sequencing before an audience of 500 people.
Waldron describes her role as a project manager as similar to a translator, making sure everyone involved on site is aligned with the final vision.
“It is about being able to carry yourself and have that confidence,” Waldron explains. “I may get asked difficult questions, internalize them, take a deep breath and react with a professional statement. That has carried me far.”
The Power of Perspective
Waldron attended the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga to earn a construction management degree. She completed several internships while in college, first with residential construction and later on larger commercial projects.
As a woman in a traditionally male-dominated field, Waldron recalls early in her career she felt pressure to conform to a specific professional style to fit in. However, she has since embraced the value of her own perspective, particularly the role of empathy in management. Waldron makes it a point to interact on a personal level with her staff — inquiring about their lives and families outside of work.
“Being a woman, I bring a different energy and perspective into daily conversations,” she says.
Strong mentors are also important, and Waldron credits a female senior project manager she met on a site who was successfully balancing her professional role with motherhood. Waldron says that was when everything clicked into place.
“I was like, ‘Okay, I can do this,” Waldron says.
On job sites from Tennessee to Dallas, to Kansas City, then to Athens and Duluth, Ga. and now Atlanta, Waldron found the time to build her own family too.
As the Cobb Galleria project reaches its midpoint, Waldron is excited to use her position to give back to SkillsUSA: a full circle moment that showcases how technical training, soft skills and mentoring forge a career — and a life.
