We Are Loureiro: Emily Kelting
May 22nd, 2023
When Emily Kelting pushed through the doors at UMass Amherst for the Women Who Build Summit, she immediately felt a sense of community. “I find that as a woman in this industry there are times where I doubt myself when sitting in a meeting, unsure whether or not I should speak up. It was great to be able to talk to people in the same position as me that have been able to overcome those feelings and succeed,” Emily says.
The Women Who Build Summit, hosted by the Construction Institute, celebrates an inspiring day of educational presentations, motivational stories, confidence-boosting interactions, and networking opportunities. Over the course of two days at the UMass Amherst campus, the conference included keynotes, breakout sessions, expert panel discussions, and focused workshops designed to spark interactions between the attendees.
It was an opportunity to champion self-empowerment and to build confidence, and over the course of those couple of days Emily reflected upon her own journey, which started at UConn and the pursuit of a degree in Mathematics.
“As a kid I was good at all the things engineers are typically good at,” Emily recalls. “Legos and puzzles and problem solving all came naturally, and when I started pursuing a degree in mathematics I realized what I really wanted was something in front of me. Something more than an equation. That led me to engineering.”
Emily began interning with Loureiro during her senior year in college, and started full-time after graduating in 2015, working her way up to a management position in the Building and Land Engineering Division.
“The first thing that appealed to me about Loureiro was the ability to work across other divisions within the company, from civil engineering to environmental to contractors. I never felt like I was working on the same thing over and over and there were always new challenges and new opportunities to brainstorm across divisions and my voice was being heard.”
Currently, Emily manages a variety of projects within the Building and Land Engineering group, from addressing drainage issues at residential developments to the closure and capping of the Town of Plainville landfill, which included permitting, design and construction oversight - work Emily is proud of.
“I’m happy to work for a company where we have the opportunity to see something through from start to finish,” Emily says. “To be able to take a project from the beginning, just the drawing and design, all the way to trucks dropping off materials for remediation I find to be very rewarding. A lot of design engineers never get the opportunity to go out in the field and see the sites that they are working on.”
One of the highlights of the Summit was the introduction of June Millington (pictured right), a Pioneer for women in Rock music. The guitarist singer-songwriter was one of the founding members of an all-girl band to be signed to a major record label (Warners), release albums, and tour internationally. Emily recognized June's ceiling smashing efforts as a parallel to women breaking into industries where they have been historically underrepresented.
“Being confident in an industry where you are the minority is important. I think the Women Who Build Summit was all about taking a step back and recognizing you know what you’re talking about, that you’ve done the work to put yourself in this position, and that you should feel good about speaking your mind.”
