Smart, Dirty and Dangerous: Lady Ironworkers and their Giant Projects
Maker Faire Bay Area 2017
May 19th-21st
In the 20th century, the job of an Ironworker was often called dark, dirty and dangerous. While some of that may still be true in 21st century, you can't call it dumb. The biggest projects in our cityscape are still built by hand, but not by brute force; the skills required of the crew are elite. Join us in conversation with a few of the women qualified to work as makers on the most massive and recognizable structures in the Bay Area.
Liisa Pine Schoonmaker
Liisa Pine Schoonmaker is a Welding Professor and the Chair of the Welding Department of Laney College in Oakland, CA. In her 26 year career, she has built and operated large robots, worked on jet cars, built science museum exhibits, run machine shops for tech research firms, set off explosives, built funhouses and giant waterslides for the Discovery Channel, and taught thousands of people to weld in MIG, TIG, Stick, Oxyfuel and FCAW.
Lisa Davidson
Lisa has been a Field Ironworker in Local 377 for over fifteen years. She's been a welder, rigger, installer and foreman on the construction and maintenance of structures such as the Bay Bridge, Golden Gate Bridge, Ca Academy of Sciences, Apple HQ and the Salesforce Tower. BA, Communications, U Mass, Amherst BFA, Rhode Island School of Design
DiaHanna Christie
DiaHanna has been a Field Ironworker since 2008, a Quality Control Manager for Summit Steel since 2015, and is the Recording Secretary for Local 377. Her work includes layout, shop fabrication, scaffold erection/dismantling, welding, rigging, heavy equipment operation, coordinating of testing and inspection, and construction management. BA, Sociology & Criminal Justice, San Francisco State Univ.
