Barb Allen loves building.

“Building. Building buildings. Building teams. Building people,” Allen says, adding, “and helping others do the same,” has been both her career path and her passion. It’s one she now shares with others as a speaker at conferences and to organizations about the gender specific challenges women face in construction and how to work together in the industry to eliminate them.

The daughter of a sheet metal worker dad who owned an HVAC company, Allen’s first job in the industry was at a local lumberyard/hardware store at age 16. “I didn’t consider construction as a career until I stumbled upon the Construction Management degree my junior year of college,” Allen said.

After she earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Central Missouri, she began her journey as a carpenter with Kansas City Carpenters Union Local #61– wearing her tool bags, learning to build buildings, relationships, and a successful career as a woman in construction. She climbed ladder rungs that included foreman, assistant superintendent, superintendent, pre-construction Manager, project executive, and operations director before launching Levocity LLC in 2022.

“Awakening unconscious biases and bringing awareness to gender specific challenges in our industry are the primary focus points of each of my speaking engagements because I believe helping all genders better recognize, identify, and understand gender specific challenges is a key component to increasing the success of women in construction,” Allen said. She also talked about her second business, a quarterly subscription box called the 14%ers, that’s specifically curated for women in construction.

“This box is my way of celebrating the women that are breaking ground, challenging norms, and shattering ceilings in this industry and provides an opportunity to remind them that they do belong and they are making a difference!”

As someone who, herself, has almost three decades of construction industry experience and is working to make a difference, Allen wants the construction industry to evolve. She’s calling for “an acknowledgement and understanding of the benefits women bring to this industry, as well as an understanding and desire to eliminate the gender specific challenges that we face.” She believes that success at both will, “enable us to build OneLadder® that creates a safe and equitable climb for ALL in our industry to leadership positions.”

OneLadder® is Allen’s name for the keynotes she delivers on the four gender specific challenges that women face in predominantly male industries.

Allen credits NAWIC for providing connections not only for her personal career growth but for her success at each of the companies for which she worked. Her exposure to the workings of an organizational board, which she said was frustrating at first, became beneficial as she began joining other industry boards and moving into executive leadership positions.

An active NAWIC member, Allen is currently the Midwest Region Regional Director and has served as chapter president, chapter director, and in many committee chair positions held at the chapter, regional, and national levels. In order to continue advocating to increase the success of women in construction, Allen said she may, in the future, run for a position on the NAWIC national board or even move into politics.

Whichever direction she chooses, she’s excited about the number of women in construction who are, “stepping up and stepping out to share their experiences and to educate others on the challenges and satisfaction that comes from a career in the construction industry.”

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