In episode 8 of Build Better, Anastasia Barnes talks with Mary Vogel, executive director of Building Pathways (BP), an eastern Massachusetts organization that creates opportunities for low-income area residents to access and prepare for building trades apprenticeships and family-sustaining careers in the construction industry and Andrea Dunn, a sprinkler fitter apprentice at E.M. Duggan (and a graduate of the BP program).  They discuss the benefits of the Building Pathways program and how it is changing lives and contributing to much-needed diversity in the construction industry.

Andrea Dunn is a sprinkler fitter apprentice for local 550 currently working for E.M Duggan. She is a proud mother of two boys currently living in the city of Boston.  Dunn previously worked at Boston Medical Center in the call center for several years and holds a certificate for Medical Administrative Assistant. She chose a career in the construction industry after her completion of the building pathways program, which is has changed her life tremendously.She enjoys reading and spending time with her children and family.  In early May of 2019, Dunn was the recipient of the first Sprinkler Fitter Apprentice of the Year award.

Mary Vogel is the executive director of Building Pathways, Inc., a Boston-based non-profit dedicated to creating opportunities for low-income Boston metro area residents, young adults, and historically underrepresented populations in the building trades industry, to access and prepare for building trades apprenticeships. She has a distinguished history as an attorney, advocate, and administrator dedicated to improving labor standards and practices in construction and other industries. She previously served as Executive Director of the National Council on Occupational Safety and Health and was the founding Executive Director of The Construction Institute, a statewide labor-management organization engaged in advocacy, training, and collaborative efforts to promote union construction and improve health and safety and working conditions in the Massachusetts construction trades. She has also served as Executive Director of the Asbestos Victims Special Fund Trust in Philadelphia, General Counsel to the Sheet Metal Occupational Health Institute in Washington, DC, and as an associate attorney in the labor law firms of Sherman, Dunn, Cohen, Leifer, and Counts PC in Washington, DC and Cohen, Weiss and Simon in New York, NY. Mary is a graduate of Georgetown Law School, where she helped found the Equal Justice Foundation.

Special thanks to Makepeace for sponsoring Episode 8 of our podcast!