September 2, 1999

Doan's work continues in high-tech lab

Journal staff

The 10 computer stations inside the Construction Industry Training Council's Bellevue office represent more than just another high-tech lab.

People wanting jobs in construction, but who lack necessary skills such as math, will soon be able to bolster their skills by booting up a modular training CD-ROM that allows the user to work at his or her own pace.

This training gives people without advanced education a shot at family-wage jobs.

Electrical contractor Piper Doan, who died earlier this year, saw the training lab as a way to help women and minorities compete for construction jobs.

The computer lab also signifies the dream of electrical contractor Piper Doan, who died on Feb. 23 this year.

In addition to owning Tangent Electric, Doan worked to help women enter construction. She believed education was one way to achieve that goal, according to her friend and colleague Sandy Olson of CITC.

Along with Kathleen Garrity, executive director of the Associated Builders and Contractors of Western Washington, Doan and Olson served on the city of Seattle's Construction Advisory Council -- a group organized to find ways to encourage women and minorities to enter the construction field.

After one meeting, Olson, Garrity and Doan brainstormed an action plan for encouraging more diversity in the field.

The computer lab was an idea they all rallied behind.

"Piper had a huge desire to find a way to help people who lacked sufficient math and computer skills," Olson said. " She wanted to find a computer-based modular training program so that people could learn at their own pace without feeling overwhelmed or threatened."

Doan passed away before the computer lab was realized, but Garrity and Olson were committed to seeing the plan through.

"Kathleen and I wanted to honor her in some way, so we asked her family if there was anything we could do," Olson said. "They agreed that the computer lab could be the vehicle for people to remember her."

The first step in establishing the lab was getting funds to support it. Olson said that she was "overwhelmed with generosity" from local contractors. Since Doan's death, the industry raised about $30,000 to open the computer lab. Additional money is being channeled into an endowment benefiting college students learning construction trades.

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"We have an endowment in Piper's name, 10 computer stations and two computer classes set to begin in mid-September," Olson said. "We're definitely on our way."

Doan served on the Construction Industry Training Council board, as well as on the Associated General Contractors of Washington board. In addition, she was about to be inducted as national president of Women Construction Owners and Executives.