摘要: |
ITE JOURNAL: Your bio says you focus on fostering a culture of diversity and on employee development at Urban Systems. As president, what are some of the ways you are helping the firm achieve these goals?
CATARELLA-MICHEL: When I started at Urban Systems, Inc. (USI) back in 2001, one of the engineers and three of the CAD technicians had first languages that were not English, so it made communication among them quite interesting! USI also had a flexible holiday policy to encourage and allow people of different faiths to take off and celebrate the days that were important to them. Although I was the only female engineer at the time, diversity was already part of the USI culture. Since becoming a partner, we have been fortunate to recruit, interview, and hire a diverse group of individuals. USI has maintained staff from various cultures, backgrounds, and lifestyles. This can be partly attributed to the diversity of the various universities from which we hire student interns. I also like to think it's because we celebrate everyone's differences and try to learn from each other. |