A union carpenter by day, Melina Harris has spent her nights as president and champion of Sisters in the Building Trades, propelling it from a local Seattle forum to an international link for tradeswomen seeking to connect and find mentoring and support in their careers.
“After our launch in Seattle, we started getting phone calls from all over the U.S. and then from Canada, England and South Africa,” says Harris. “That’s when we realized there was a real need for this.” Harris’ two decades in the building trades as a member of carpenters’ Local 1797 inspired her advocacy. “I was having a hard time on the job but found that I was handling it damn well compared to so many others.”