Spotlight: Kristine Walz

Kristine started her career at Sierra in 2005. She knew from a young age that should would end up in construction. “I started drawing floor plans in kindergarten. When other kids were trying to draw stick figures, I was trying to draw my house’s elevation. I would get so mad at Lincoln Logs because you could never build a proper shed roof.” After graduating from the University of Oregon in Architecture, she began at Sierra as a Project Engineer. Her first projects included big box retail stores like Kohl’s and Walmart. Now a Senior Project Manager, she has managed large scale industrial projects including Amazon Troutdale, and is currently wrapping up Bridge Point I-5 in Portland.

What brought you to Sierra? I always read the Employee Spotlights and so many people have amazing things to say about what attracted them to Sierra. My story is much more “dumb college student lucks out.” My degree is in architecture and I worked for an architect that was crazy when I was in college, so I was just interested in not working for a crazy person. I interviewed at Sierra because my roommate’s boyfriend worked for Sierra at the time and he didn’t have anything bad to say about it. I honestly had no idea what the job was going to entail before I started. Obviously it has worked out since I have been here 15 years.

What is your favorite food? Potatoes – Yukon gold, Russian banana, red thumb, French fingerling, purple majesty, all blue… any potato, I don’t discriminate.

If you could have one superpower, what would it be? Big cat whisperer

What is the best book you have ever read? My favorite book of all time is The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. I read it for the first time when I was 14, and I read it at least once a year.

Tell us something that might surprise us about you? I'm a crazy cat lady. It's not the number, it's the mindset.

What is your favorite color? Pink. The hotter the better.