Oklahoma Launches Next Women of Asphalt Branch
BY Sandy Lender
Women of Asphalt grows with Oklahoma branch and workforce outreach
Oklahoma can now boast of its commitment to mentoring and encouraging women in the asphalt industry as the state has launched its branch of the Women of Asphalt organization. The new group held its kickoff meeting May 23 during a video chat with the national organization, where they also revealed their Oklahoma WOA logo.
Trish Morris, project manager for Silver Star Construction, Moore, Oklahoma, leads the charge in bringing the branch to life and shared the group had its first official meeting at the Oklahoma Asphalt Pavement Association (OAPA) headquarters office with lunch after the inaugural meeting. At the meeting, Morris asked for volunteers to serve on the initial board; after the meeting the board was finalized, and those members are as follows:
- Morris, chairwoman
- Kati Ratliff of Rudy Construction, vice chair
- Krysta Green of First Water Contracting, secretary
- Chante Kizer of OAPA, treasurer (temporary)
After a Zoom meeting with the Women of Asphalt organization, the newly formed Oklahoma branch had its first meeting with lunch to name officers and get down to business.
That summary might sound basic on the surface, but the process of bringing a new organization online took months of preparation and has already started reaching out to the next generation of construction workers.
Morris has worked as a project manager and estimator at Silver Star Construction for three years and has been in the asphalt industry for 15 years. Her immediate supervisor at Silver Star is a board member of OAPA advocated for Morris to attend the WofA inaugural executive seminar at Astec Industries in Chattanooga in November 2024. Morris wanted to bring this encouragement and motivation to Oklahoma and saw interest already growing in the state.
The newly formed Oklahoma Women of Asphalt branch teamed up with Construct My Future for construction camp during the week of June 2 and worked with 96 “campers” on Paving Day.
“There were close to 30 members in Oklahoma already interested in a Women of Asphalt branch,” Morris said. “I took that back to Larry [Patrick], who took the information to the board.”
Larry Patrick is the executive director of the OAPA and was pleased to see Morris and Aaron Parker of Silver Star poll the membership to find the level of interest had grown. Patrick shared that the three of them met before the OAPA annual conference to come up with a plan. They would set up a sign-up sheet during the conference for members to show their interest and receive a WofA hat when doing so. “Silver Star had the hats made, and I can’t thank them enough for all of their help,” Patrick shared. “In the meantime, I sat down with the OAPA executive committee telling them of the interest and they liked the idea but wanted to see the number of signups.” Patrick stated that the executive committee may have been taken by surprise by the amount of interest among the membership.
The WofA national organization tracks what state its members are from and shares those signups with the branches, and that’s where Morris’s roster began. Adding conference signups to the spreadsheet she received from the national organization showed the interest level was high.
Trish Morris stands with one of the students at the awards lunch for construction camp to take “a pink picture.”
From there, Patrick presented the concept to the OAPA board, which he said was very supportive. Morris next reached out to the “signups” to tell them about the kickoff meeting and Patrick reached out to the membership at large to inform them about the branch and how to join.
“Trish has done a fantastic job at reaching out and getting the chapter started,” Patrick shared. “OAPA will be there to help, and I think once we get it announced, we should see financial help coming in. That is one thing I can say, our members are always there to help support OAPA and I don’t see any change for Women of Asphalt Oklahoma. Our meetings will be here at the OAPA office where we have a conference room that holds about 40 people. But we have access to the Oklahoma Home Builders Association right next door to our office that has a conference room that can hold 80 and I hope in the near future we can fill that room.”
With the branch officially formed, the first event took place with Construct My Future, Oklahoma City. “We did construction camp last week with the middle schoolers,” Morris shared. “We had 96 campers on Paving Day. WOA made asphalt candy with them. We had four ladies, myself included, at the event.”
“Overall, the ladies seem excited,” Morris continued. “We are planning to meet in July or August (or both) to plan our next event, and I am working with Larry to fundraise at the OAPA golf tournament in September.”
Next steps include setting up all the social media platforms for the group where board member introductions and information about events will be posted, and volunteering at additional Construct My Future events like construction rodeos to encourage and educate youth on a career in the asphalt industry.
“I am very excited to see the Oklahoma chapter being put together,” Patrick shared. “The time is right and the interest is there…. This is something I have had in the back of my mind and Trish moved the needle to the front of my mind, along with many others. I can’t thank her enough for her hard work to get this off the ground.”