Age: 33
Job Title: Senior Associate, Community Development Engineer, Stantec Consulting Ltd.
Why She’s Top 40: She helps build the city through her work as a development engineer and through her volunteer work, where she empowers young Edmontonians to engage with their communities.
Unexpected Hobby:
“My sister, cousin and I schedule a craft night about once a month, where we learn a new skill or try our hands at making something new. So far we’ve made door-hanging wreaths, recipe boxes, bracelets and necklaces, and we also self-taught ourselves to knit.”
One of urban development engineer Kairi Pawlick’s first jobs involved working in the Arctic. She lived in a camp, drove snowmobiles through the bush and communicated to her colleagues by radio. One day while having dinner, a male co-worker said: “Oh, you’re the girl on the radio.”
“It made me stop for a moment, and realize that aside from kitchen staff, I was the only female there,” says Pawlick.
Since then, she’s had several moments throughout the six years she’s spent at her current workplace, Stantec, when she noticed she was the only woman in the room. As a senior associate, she’s worked on diverse projects ranging from Habitat for Humanity builds – where she helped develop the roads and services for the sites – to the Hawks Ridge Development. The Hawks Ridge project involved incorporating environmental aspects into the plans, including a wildlife corridor.
But Pawlick is building the city in less literal ways, too. She volunteers with the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta, where she engages with first-year engineering students; she also mentors through Stantec’s emerging leader’s program.
Pawlick is also the co-chair of NextGen, a volunteer-run organization that seeks to empower young Edmontonians. “It’s very different from the workplace. In community work, you’re working with people of different backgrounds, ages and experiences towards a common vision. It’s the bigger picture,” says Pawlick.
