Kitchell Class is in session at this year’s CMAA National Conference in Washington, DC! We’re thrilled to announce two education sessions:

First up, Project Manager Chris Lerma will participate in “The Value of a Non-Traditional and Diverse Workforce” Monday, October 30 at 4:00pm in National Harbor 12-13. Chris will be joined by Jaimee Robinson and Sharon Berger from Gannett Fleming for this session, which explores why traditional recruitment practices no longer meet the industry’s need for new employees and future leaders. Guests will hear stories, lessons learned, wins, and losses from employees generally considered non-traditional, such as women, transgendered persons, and mid-life career changers. Attendees will gain a clearer understanding of what these employees face, why they choose these career paths, and how they add value to their firms in ways that a more traditional employee may not.

On October 31, Program Director Dan Porter will moderate “Equity-Based Facilities Master Planning” at 11:45am in National Harbor 2. Join Dan and panelists Anton Blewett (K-12 Education Planner, DLR Group), Nathanial Browning (Director of Capital Projects, Facilities and Resource Management, Sacramento City Unified School District), Dr. Regina Stanback Stroud, Ph.D. (President, RSS Consulting) and Leigh Sata (Vice President, Capital Projects and Operations, California College of the Arts) for a discussion about the critical role facilities master plans play in ensuring equity, meeting students needs and supporting the ability to learn. Some districts are moving away from the traditional facilities master planning process that prioritizes construction projects based on facility condition indexes and capacity factors. These districts now use equity-based facilities master planning that considers student and neighborhood factors to prioritize needs. In this session, see the path the Sacramento City Unified School District took to create an equity-based facilities master plan and explore the lessons learned.

While you’re at the conference, be sure to connect with Kitchell team members Jeremy Judd, Leo Rosas, Ernesto Gonzalez, Bill Johal, Jeff Dees, Jen Frahm, and of course Dan Porter and Chris Lerma!

Did you know: Kitchell will be presenting at the upcoming Community College Facility Coalition (CCFC) 30th Annual Conference in Sacramento November 6-8! Our featured workshops include:

“Partnering to Build the Workforce Pipeline,” moderated by Wendy Cohen, CEO and President of Kitchell, is a discussion about the California economy, the workforce shortage and the critical role of community colleges. Wendy will be joined by a distinguished panel comprised of Rueben Smith, Chief Facilities Executive at Los Angeles Community College District, Farrah Farzaneh, Director of Facilities Planning for San Bernardino Community College District, and Hussain Agah, Associate Vice Chancellor, Facilities Planning and Development at Riverside Community College District to explore various topics. Attendees will learn and explore subjects including the integration of community colleges and business partnerships as critical development of our future workforce, businesses helping businesses while educating and training, the importance of supporting local, small emerging, disabled veterans and local hire programs, and successful programs within the A/E/C industries which could be a model for the future.

Program Director David Dunn will moderate the workshop “How to get from hard bid to design-build to progressive design-build in 5 years.” This workshop brings together Tim Flood, Vice President, Administrative Services for MiraCosta Community College District, Deborah Shepley, Principal at Gensler and Tyler Steele, Project Executive at Balfour Beatty in a dynamic panel made up of the program, construction manager, architect, contractor and owner to share how they successfully transitioned from the hard bid delivery method to design-build and ultimately progressive design-build in a matter of 5 years while delivering over 35 projects. This panel will discuss their path to success including lessons learned on how they managed and ensured a smooth transition through timelines, contracts, schedules and demands, efforts on pre-planning, educating all stakeholders, getting the consultant teams on board and how they navigated the politics of transitioning.

The owner, MiraCosta Community College District currently serves approximately 25,000 students. The District representative will share why they decided to make the change, and how the new delivery method is creating more controls, savings and helping to reduce risks. Join us to hear from the team that streamlined the many processes and contractual changes that got them to a construction delivery method creating more efficiency, collaboration and risk control and what the industry needs to know before embarking on a complex transition plan.

Visit our Kaptains of the Industry on the trade show floor at booth #118 to visit with Kitchell employee-owners! There are even more opportunities to connect with Kitchell at our Kaptains of the Industry happy hour event at The Mix on November 7. There are plenty of opportunities to link up with our Kitchell team – don’t miss out!  Please be sure to RSVP by scanning the QR code.