The National Association of Women in Construction is pleased to announce the recipients of its Future Leader of the Year, Member of the Year and Lifetime Achievement Awards. The mission of the awards is to recognize outstanding efforts of NAWIC members.

The 2017 Future Leader of the Year Award winner is Romina Byrd, SHRM-CP, president of NAWIC’s Greater Washington, D.C. Chapter. Byrd is the Director of Education and Training for Miller and Long Concrete Construction. During her 20 years at Miller and Long, she has created and facilitated a number of programs to promote careers in construction, and personal and professional development. She was instrumental in the onset of the company’s Students Construction Trade Foundation and its Academy of Construction and Design. Since 2002, Byrd has brought together the company’s apprentices to participate in the annual Big Build Festival at the National Building Museum, a hands on festival for children. Just months after joining NAWIC, Byrd became her chapter’s president, growing its membership more than 600 percent in under two years.

Shelie Gaffron, will be recognized as NAWIC’s 2017 Member of the Year. Gaffron, a member of NAWIC’s Fort Worth, Texas Chapter, is a Pre-Construction Specialist/Estimator at AUI Partners, LLC. Since joining NAWIC in 2012, she has served her chapter as president-elect, vice president, secretary and director. She has also chaired numerous chapter and regional committees. She was selected as her chapter’s 2016 Woman in Construction, and is a member of the Construction Management Advisory Board at Tarrant County College.

NAWIC’s 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Linda Young, CBT, CIT. A member of NAWIC since 1985, Young is a member of the San Diego, Calif. Chapter. She has served as NAWIC national president, president-elect, vice president, and treasurer. She has also served as a NAWIC region director and president of the NAWIC Education Foundation. She has held every office on her chapter’s board and chaired numerous chapter, region and national committees. During her time with NAWIC she helped found her chapter’s CAMP NAWIC, which introduces young women to the construction industry; helped her chapter set up a 501 (c)(3) foundation—NAWIC Future Construction Leaders Foundation, of which she is currently president; and mentored numerous women. She is the owner of C-SOS Consulting.

Byrd, Gaffron, and Young will be honored at the NAWIC Awards Gala on Aug. 18 during NAWIC’s 62^nd Annual Meeting and Education Conference in Anaheim, Calif. NAWIC members from across the country will gather at the Hyatt Regency Orange County for the Conference.

Contact Autumn Daughetee, NAWIC communications director, at autumnd@nawic.org or (800) 552-3506 for more information about the NAWIC Awards, photos or to arrange an interview. Media passes are also available for NAWIC’s Annual Meeting and Education Conference. Visit the NAWIC website at www.nawic.org.