Award of Excellence Winner Judaline Cassidy: Empowering Girls to Consider Careers in Construction

That wasn’t the first time she struggled to be taken seriously as a tradeswoman, and it wouldn’t be the last. Even as she continued to prove herself, only one man on that crew would work with her; the others wanted nothing to do with a woman of color—an immigrant—and one with an accent to boot, she says. On some jobsites, no one spoke to her at all. On others, she was taunted and ridiculed.

Cassidy uses the challenges she faced growing up and in her career to empower young girls to pursue largely unseen and nontraditional career pathways, with a focus on the construction trades.
Photos courtesy of Judaline Cassidy

“For years I was the only woman on a jobsite. When other women did show up, they didn’t stay. They weren’t comfortable with the male-dominated workspace, and they weren’t getting the same opportunities as men,” she adds. But Cassidy says her moxie, grit and determination, along with the support of a couple of men, including Nunzio, whom she calls “mallies” (male + ally), made all the difference.

Today, with 30 years of a successful plumbing career under her (tool)belt, Cassidy is using the challenges she faced to empower young girls across New York City to pursue careers in the construction industry. In 2017, while still working full time in her trade, she founded Tools & Tiaras, a nonprofit that exposes girls ages 6 to 17 to largely unseen and nontraditional career pathways where women —especially women of color—are underrepresented.

“A lot of women are missing out on the lucrative, life-changing opportunities that construction has to offer. Jobs truly don’t have genders, and that’s the premise behind Tools & Tiaras,” she says.

For empowering young girls who, like she did, lack the resources and support to “dream big and lead successful careers,” and for preparing the next generation of skilled workers while changing perceptions of the construction industry, ENR has named Judaline Cassidy its 2026 Award of Excellence winner.

Photo courtesy of Judaline Cassidy

Finding Her Purpose

Growing up poor in Trinidad and Tobago, Cassidy’s childhood wasn’t easy. She never knew her father and was raised by her great-grandmother after her mother abandoned her. Her dyslexia made reading and writing a challenge. Classmates teased her. But she had big dreams, as young girls do.

“I wanted to be Wonder Woman and a lawyer, in that order,” she contends. “I pictured myself traveling the world, fighting injustice.”

When her great-grandmother died and Cassidy was rendered penniless, she lost both her support system and her dreams of college. Cassidy applied to the local trade school, which offered young women traditional tracks of study like sewing and secretarial courses. She thought she’d have a better chance of getting in if she applied to one of the nontraditional, construction paths. She chose plumbing because “I figured if I worked with electricity, I’d get shocked. If I worked in plumbing, I’d get wet,” she says, with her trademark giggle.

From the moment she was introduced to plumbing, Cassidy fell in love with it. In the union, she gained access to its apprenticeship program, along with higher wages, health insurance and a pension plan—and this changed the course of her life and her family’s life, she says.
Photo courtesy of Judaline Cassidy

Initially denied entry to the program, she persevered—at one point dropping to do pushups to prove she was capable. Cassidy was one of the first three women accepted to the plumbing track at the John S. Donaldson Technical Institute of Trinidad, now the University of Trinidad and Tobago. The other women dropped out, “but the minute I was introduced to plumbing, I fell in love with it,” she says. “And I’m still in love with it.”

Cassidy wants other girls to fall in love with construction as well, but to do that they must know that construction careers exist and are even options for them, she says. “It is very important that the girls are part of the movement and the pipeline to bring in the skilled workers that we need as an industry. Women are 51% of the population, so why wouldn’t we want that part of the population to have these good jobs and to make the money that comes from it and to be in all parts of the construction industry leadership?”

And that’s what she’s doing, through workshops, summer camps and school presentations: “I want parents and the guidance counselors to know that the construction industry is the other four-year degree, and that’s what the union brings,” she says.

Photo courtesy of Judaline Cassidy

Other like-minded people are taking notice of her efforts. “It’s not just about hammers and nails. This [industry] is about solving problems on a jobsite, moment to moment. So, we need diversity of thought, and it has really been a benefit. The more diverse in gender and background of the people on a job site, the better the job is, the better decision-making, the better problem-solving,” says Rosalie Drago, vice president of external affairs and strategic engagement for civil infrastructure firm Haugland Group.

As the first female Commissioner of Labor for Suffolk County, Drago oversaw the workforce programs on Long Island. She says Haugland is committed to investing in not only local hires for a project happening today, but also in the future talent pipeline. “Wherever we build, we look for partners in the area that have those pipeline programs,” she adds. “The owners of Haugland are girl dads and they want to make sure that everyone’s daughters have the opportunity to access these amazing careers, to learn about them and to build a successful, meaningful career in infrastructure and construction.”

Tools & Tiaras volunteers teach plumbing, welding, carpentry and electrical skills, as well as lessons on self-esteem, finance, debate techniques, activism and healthy boundaries. The girls take day trips to construction sites, union training centers and industry partners.
Photos courtesy of Judaline Cassidy

In 2025, Haugland learned that Tools & Tiaras had a waitlist of girls who wanted to be part of the program. To accommodate them, the contractor helped Cassidy locate to a new headquarters with workshop space in Brooklyn’s Industry City, and provided seed money to help her make it happen. “It’s an abundant space near a lot of transit, and there’s a lot of investment in energy infrastructure in the area,” Drago notes.

Going from transporting tools and other workshop supplies in the back of her car, and her current and very small offices in Queens, Cassidy says this new space will enable the program to increase the capacity of the work currently being offered, and give Tools & Tiaras the opportunity to finally have a space to do after-school programming.

“We are looking for as many opportunities to engage with [Cassidy] as we can, because people like her, they’re the true ambassadors,” says Indira Santiago, a marketing coordinator with Skanska USA. Last summer, the New York metro division of the Skanska Women’s Network sponsored t-shirts for the girls attending the Tools & Tiaras summer camp.

“What she’s doing is huge; she’s moving the needle,” Santiago says. “Because construction, like every other field, is facing a tremendous shortage. And we need more people to come in. And to get more people, you need to include girls, women.”

For Santiago, not only as a woman, but also a woman of color and a child of immigrants, “I know the challenges that face people who come from a different country and maybe don’t speak the language or have an accent … and the fact that she’s been able to craft not only a career for herself, but also to be able to pay it forward … that is what’s going to make the difference. That is what’s going to bring forth girls who look like me, look like her. People need to see people who look like them, to know that they have a chance [to succeed].”

Alongside a 30-year plumbing career, Cassidy works to empower girls who, like she did, lack the resources and support to dream big. In 2025 she wrote a book (above left), sharing her advice for anyone who wants to find —and pursue—their own passion.
Photo courtesy of Judaline Cassidy

There is “a severe lack of funding for girls in careers that don’t fall into a preconceived idea of what girls should be,” says Tools & Tiaras board member Tia Oros Peters, CEO of the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples. “But girls in the trades are the future. It doesn’t supplant or replace anybody; people can work alongside each other to learn and grow together. Building something that provides skills and self-esteem is good for the economy, and it’s good for families.”

Turner Construction provides field trip leaders, volunteers and mentors for Tools & Tiaras, says board member Janice Haughton, senior director of community and citizenship at Turner. The contractor hosted Cassidy’s girls on an active jobsite at the Brooklyn STEAM Center School, which Turner renovated, at the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

“Turner opens its jobsites and corporate offices to provide real-world internships and insights,” Haughton says. “Over the years, we’ve witnessed countless inspiring examples of how the program can inspire the next generation of leaders, and I am particularly proud of two young [Tools & Tiaras] women I mentor, who are now in college pursuing degrees in civil and structural engineering.”

Cassidy’s mentor, Brian Tortora (above right). Daughter, Carey Mercer (left), a union sheet metal worker, partners with her mom to introduce girls to construction.
Photos (middle left) by Scott Blair/ENR; (bottom right and left) courtesy of Judaline Cassidy.

Paying It Forward

As a young plumber, Cassidy “was very dedicated to her craft, and she wanted to do the best job possible,” says Brian Tortora, a retired union plumber and welding instructor for Plumbers Local No. 1. He met Cassidy early in her career on a Staten Island construction project, and “I said to myself, this girl is going to go places, and I took her under my wing,” he adds.

“She constantly asked me questions of the jobs that we were on. ‘Why are we doing it this way? How come we have to do it this way?’ And I would answer her questions and help her out as best I could,” he says.

But sometimes the questions were a little much, so Tortora gave her an orange mechanical handbook that had all the plumbing formulas and equations in it. “I told her: ‘Here, please read and study this,’” he laughs. It’s a book she still has to this day, he adds.

“We used to discuss different problems on the job amongst ourselves, how to solve them, how to install piping the correct way. And then we would reference the handbook to show her the theory behind it,” he says.

After learning that Cassidy had applied to the Staten Island Plumbers Union and had been turned down multiple times, Tortora used his influence and pushed the union to reconsider. It worked, and Cassidy became the first woman accepted into Plumbers Local No. 371 Staten Island.

As a union plumber, Cassidy gained access to the union’s apprenticeship training along with higher wages, health insurance and a pension plan, and “this changed the trajectory of my life, and my family’s life,” she says.

Later, she became the first woman elected to the Examining Board of Plumbers Local 1 in New York City after the unions merged. In 2016, she ushered in the first Women’s Committee within her union, becoming its first president. She currently sits on the union’s executive board. Paul O’Connor, Local 1’s business manager, says Cassidy is one of the first faces that an incoming apprentice sees. As a father of three daughters, he emphasizes that this exposure “is important for the union, and also for the industry.”

O’Connor says that with artificial intelligence on everyone’s mind, it’s also important that Cassidy is telling young people that jobs in the trades will always be essential. “She does a tremendous job getting that information out to younger people. And what she’s doing [to change the number of new workers choosing construction] is going to pay forward for generations.”

“Growing up, life was tough,” Cassidy says. “We didn’t always have stuff, and not having a mother in my life was difficult for a long time, even in my adulthood, but my grandmother, and her guidance—making sure I went to school, I went to church and volunteered—that led me to the path that I am on now, because I grew up with somebody who always wanted me to do more and put others in front of my needs, and I learned that from her,” she adds.

“A lot of times when I achieve amazing things and I experience things that I never thought I would, I wonder if she’s looking down and saying: There’s my granddaughter. There she is.”

The Impact of One

“Plumbers protect the health of the nation,” says Cassidy. She shares this and other words of inspiration with the hundreds of students who are introduced to construction careers though her presentations in New York City public schools each year. “The first question they ask is ‘How much money can I make?’,” she laughs. “When I tell them, their eyes get very big.”

Approximately 250 girls attended Tools & Tiaras’ programs, weekend workshops and camps in 2025. Cassidy brings in female mentors—volunteers from local construction firms—who teach the girls plumbing, welding, carpentry and electrical skills, along with lessons on self-esteem, finance, debate techniques, activism and healthy boundaries. The girls take day trips to construction sites, union training centers and industry partners. They also hear from guest speakers: women working in other fields such as finance, aviation and legal.

“We know girls need more than just a hammer in their hand; they need the tools to build their whole lives,” says Cassidy. “Our programs empower girls both literally and figuratively, pairing hands-on skilled trades experience with the self-esteem and boundary-setting work delivered by a specialized nonprofit partner. Because developing complete, unstoppable young women takes a full toolkit.”

Participants gain a sense of confidence, says Estelle St. Clair, a New York City union carpenter of 26 years and Tools & Tiaras volunteer. “Their minds just expand. When you do that for them so young, it has an impact way into the future … it’s just a powerful thing,” she says. “I understand what it would have meant when I was a girl to have that motivation.”

“I see the joy on Judaline’s face when she sees the girls respond. She’s like a proud mother,” says Toni Campbell, a sheet metal tradeswoman whose 13-year-old daughter, Parker James, has been attending Tools & Tiaras programs since the age of six.

“The importance of this program for the children in our area, and children everywhere, is how it broadens the minds of young girls to redirect their energies to themselves,” Campbell says. “Judaline has inspired so many of these children—and even their parents. Some of the fathers walk out saying ‘I didn’t even think about this career’,” she adds.

Kiewit field engineer Tanzira Rashid has also been involved with Tools & Tiaras since its early days, attending summer camp starting at age 14. A 2025 graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Rashid, 23, says it influenced her career path.

“My parents are immigrants, so they had this American dream where either I would become a doctor or a lawyer,” she says. “When I mentioned I wanted to get into construction, they were very intrigued, because this was something that they didn’t really have much knowledge about.” Through Tools & Tiaras, “they saw how passionate I was and how hands-on it was, and the amazing support system I had with Judaline.”

Learning confidence at a young age is very important for girls, Rashid adds.

“I often wonder if I’m doing enough,” says Cassidy. “Then I’ll get a text message from someone like Penelope Amaya, who is in college now, studying to be an architect.” Amaya lined up an internship with a woman-owned architectural firm through her Tools & Tiaras mentor. “She sends me life updates,” Cassidy adds with pride in her voice.

“Tools & Tiaras showed me that women can do anything,” Amaya says. “Since the moment I held the [welding] torch in my first class, I loved it.”

Samantha Chtcherbinin-Reynoso didn’t know what she wanted to be when she grew up, but she knew she didn’t want a desk job. After being introduced to women pilots through one of the Tools & Tiaras camps, which she began attending when she was 12, she says her eyes were opened to a career she had never even imagined was possible: “I was like, wait, I could do that!” she says.

This realization led Chtcherbinin-Reynoso to attend Aviation High School in Queens, and she is currently pursuing an aviation degree at Vaughn College. Tools & Tiaras was “the click,” she says, that helped her determine “what I want to do for the rest of my life.”

“A family will come in to enroll their daughter, and then a mom or an aunt will wind up going into the trades,” adds Haugland’s Drago. “So, it means growth for the family in that respect, in terms of employment and opportunity, because most of the families aren’t aware of the way to access good union careers.”

“That impact of one is so important,” Cassidy contends. “What we do just impacting one girl could change a community, the girl’s life, and it could change our nation. I am that one girl who has been impacted because Brian [Tortora] invested in me.”

As a girl, Judaline Cassidy dreamed of fighting injustice. Today she has turned a passion for plumbing into her life’s work: inspiring girls to consider nontraditional careers, while creating the next generation of the construction industry’s workforce.
Photo by Bruce Buckley for ENR

The Future Is Female

“She is literally taking time off of work to follow her dream to educate younger females coming in through the industry,” says O’Connor. “The message that she’s spreading and the forum that she’s using and the voice that she’s using [is a benefit for] not just Plumbers Local 1, but for all trades and for access for women into the industry.”

“What drives her is the look in the girls’ eyes … and seeing their confidence grow,” says Cassidy’s daughter, Carey Mercer, who followed her mother into the trades. A union sheet metal worker, Mercer is also the Tools & Tiaras’ BOSS, which stands for builder of sisterhood and success. Mercer hopes to see the program grow and expand into other states with tradeswomen in different cities running it and empowering girls across the country.

“What we’re finally seeing in construction, which has been a rough-and-tumble industry for a long period of time, is that we must have safe areas for anybody coming into the industry, including women,” adds O’Connor. “And what that means is the typical construction job of the past doesn’t look like it does today, with areas where women can change in shanties, or have private areas to clean up.” This needs to be more employer-driven, O’Connor says, “because that’s what we need for everybody to feel safe and productive to come into work every day.”

Tortora says Cassidy’s efforts couple seamlessly with the union’s existing mentoring program. “Judaline has the same attributes that she’s passing on to her young charges—a dedication to your craft, no matter what it is, striving to be the best that you can be, and if there’s a job worth doing, it’s worth doing well.”

“For the girls of today that Judy is helping, the future is very bright,” Tortora contends. “Number one, they’re very lucky to have [the Tools & Tiaras program], and that they’re given an opportunity. Because there are people that want to go out there. They want to work with their hands. They want to build something. They want to contribute to society. And Judaline is showing them the way.”

“I truly believe in their potential, because I know as a girl, you believe deep down inside, you could be anything and everything you want to be, until society smushes that fire,” says Cassidy. “At Tools & Tiaras, that is my job. And what I’ve learned from my grandmother is to make sure that fire never gets extinguished.”

“Hopefully now I can be somebody who some young girl can look up to. She can say, ‘Judaline is a plumber. She is an immigrant just like me. And she’s doing it so I can do it.’”

Perhaps Cassidy’s dream of becoming a superhero has come true after all.