We are very proud of the prominent role women play at Toole Design. Our founder and President, Jennifer Toole, has built a company of talented professionals who share her values of ethics, equity, and empathy – and are equally committed to collaboration, innovation, and communication. It is, perhaps, no accident that women comprise:
- A majority of board members
- 50% of Director-level positions and higher
- 75% of Associates
- A majority of Office Directors and 75% of Regional Directors, and
- The North American Directors of Planning, Engineering, and Civil Engineering
You may also recall from Engineers Week that Toole Design also far exceeds national norms when it comes to the percentage of women engineers (50%).
However, we #choosetochallenge ourselves that this is not enough. First, this level of representation for women in the company doesn’t happen by accident and it must be maintained or improved with an ongoing commitment to equality and inclusivity in recruitment, professional development, and work practices, policies, and procedures.
Second, we know we have a responsibility to support, mentor, and HIRE women-owned companies to work with us on projects whenever we can. We gratefully acknowledge the role of the various WBE/DBE programs that helped us establish ourselves in the engineering, planning, and design professions, and thank the companies that hired us over the years.
Third, we also challenge ourselves this International Women’s Day to increase the diversity of our staff – male and female – to include more BIPOC at all levels of the company. Once again, while we do well compared to industry averages…our company, and our industry, must strive to do better.
Featured image above: Right, Jennifer Toole, President; Left, Alia Anderson, Director of Planning, North America.
