Breaking Barriers: Dr. Vijayeta Malla on Women in Construction & PMI Global Leadership

Speaker A: Foreign welcome to the Everyday PM Podcast. The podcast where we discuss project management principles for your everyday life. My name is Anne Campia. I m am the host and m founder of the Everyday PM podcast and I'm so excited to welcome back to the podcast Dr. Mala, who is a senior project management professional and expert in program controls, planning and scheduling. She's got over 17 years, probably even more than that, of global experience leading complex infrastructure programs. And I'm excited to welcome her back in this series that we've put together Building up to Women in Construction Week, which is in 2026. And this is the week, uh, the beginning of March is when we celebrate women in the construction industry. Dr. Mala, you are just amongst many of the women who are in this industry and for that reason I'm excited to welcome you back to the podcast. We're going to do a little bit more digging into who you are, uh, how you advocate for women in construction industry and the role that you play which uh, is connected to the Project Management Institute as well. So why don't we dive right in. But before we get started, for those who have not met you yet, Dr. Mala, please take a brief moment to introduce yourself.

Speaker B: Hey, that's a wonderful and wonderful way to start ahead, uh, on the pretext of the Women's Day celebrations that are coming ahead. Absolutely. So I really feel um, a great kind of um, introduction is not necessary. Yeah, I try to put perfect.

Speaker A: I nailed it.

Speaker B: Like um, uh, myself. Dr. Mala, I have been in the construction industry for more than 17 years, uh, both serving as an industry practitioner as well as I have been in the research academia, uh, performing certain independent research projects to. So coming across the kind of roles that I have played over these last 17 years. It ranged from the scheduler, planner, planning manager kinds of roles to a flavor of construction operations and contracts management. I've been involved with uh, various and in fact diverse kinds of infrastructure projects ranging from water, minerals and metallurgical handling unit projects, uh, mission critical projects, rail transit projects, as well as currently taking care of uh, the aviation and maritime projects of the Port of Oakland.

Speaker A: Such a beautiful plentiful background. Absolutely.

Speaker B: I'm glad that um, uh, today's session is primarily being focused on a construction specific, uh, professional certification from PMI that has been recently released and highly appreciate, uh, and thank Ann for taking this initiative and putting up the series and the kind of traction that it is gaining with respect to the construction industry, transforming the entire landscape, uh, with technology, processes and the kinds of novel roles that are coming into Picture. Without much ado, uh, we'll begin.

Speaker A: Absolutely. And I will just say it's been an honor having you on for the last few few podcast episodes. I hope that our listeners have enjoyed it. Uh, but like I said today we're going to dig into your role and your involvement in advocating for women in construction. So um, I should mention also which I left off of your introduction, but it is important to call out that Dr. Mala, the reason why you are doctors. You also have a PhD in construction management. So if her plentiful background has not already um, inspired. Inspired a lot of you in terms of all the things that you can do in this space. Dr. Mala also has taken it a step further with her education as well. So uh, with that being said, let's dig into your role at Project Management Institute. You are the PMI Global Construction Ambassador. It's a very very fancy title and I'm sure with it comes a lot of great responsibilities. But for those who may not be familiar with the position, we. Why don't we start with you explaining what it means to be the PMI Global Construction Ambassador and describe some of the key responsibilities of the role. And I'm more curious about how did you even fall into this role. Uh, what was the connection point between you and pmi?

Speaker B: Well that's absolutely striking. So I would just first explain what is this PMI Global Construction Ambassador role is and then I would like to uh, bring about how my venture into this role has come into picture and then dive in about the responsibilities, what it means and how I play a critical role in advancing uh, for women in construction also apart from just advancing the construction specific project management excellence.

Speaker A: Great.

Speaker B: So this PMI Global Construction Ambassador role is more of a bridge or uh, a uh, kind of a connection between a global best practices and what's actually is happening in the construction industry with respect to construction sites, program offices or within the project teams. And it so happened I have been volunteering PMI in the various roles as a content creator, thought leader as well as um, organizing various sorts of conferences and panel speaker for PMI Agile series. Uh, at the global level I have been more than eight years continuously performing various roles and it so striked my venture into different geographical regions contribution towards uh, PMI's best practices. During one of the moderating session I uh, have been um, notified that I have been playing a key role in managing various sorts of uh, mega scale projects, construction projects and that to women in the construction industry. How do they foray their uh, career towards different or towards different domains or navigating towards a uh, challenging roles. They have uh, saw my stories that have been connected with them and it so happened PMI has chosen me as one of the global construction ambassador role for my efforts and the contribution that has been done since the last eight years. So it's not just a single event or a single incident that changed this, that changed my way or I got this role. It's been a continuous. You need to inspire with your global practices and try to imbibe and assimilate the best uh practices across the various industries and how you contribute to the society played a key role. This was an unexpected and it's a kind of a honor for me to be part of the PMI especially in the global construction ambassador role for the North American um, North America especially the Silicon Valley. In the current road for me and coming to being as an ambassador my role is uh, roles and responsibilities are primarily ensuring that I advance uh the kind of construction specific project management excellence by promoting the frameworks that PMICP is uh provided, let that be interface frameworks or the construction contracts and dispute management. Also I, since I have been in this digital construction and digital transformation of certain projects uh, I also have given certain sessions um by providing how digital uh transformation through people process technology needs to be integrated in any uh technology enabled programs or portfolios that an organization is going for. And another role is I try to help the practitioners on how to develop certain standardization, um data um data legalization or data uh standardization and technology which drastically improves their outcomes not just being compliant with it. Apart from that um, on a practical note if I have to speak it means leading webinars. So I led various webinars and there are various sorts of upcoming webinars speaking at the conferences like Women Transportation and Women Transportation Seminar and also collaborating with the PMI chapters both at the global level as well as at the local level. PMI chapters like the Silicon Valley chapter and AAC International and also working closely with the industry and academia. For instance uh, I've been recently involved in initiatives around AI enabled project controls and how to use digital tools in a more ethical manner and ensure large program governance. So in my current role I'm providing uh a sort of um digitalization and um form of migrating the existing system to a unified system. So here I try to provide the scheduling planning uh, as well as the risk management uh, standardization slash governance which are the very real challenges in today's infrastructure projects. And another key or the crucial part of the role is I'm Deeply passionate about advancing women in construction.

Speaker A: Absolutely.

Speaker B: And I critically use this platform to um, voice out uh, our opinions, create visibility for women leaders and normalize the kind of presence of women in the technical as well as leadership roles. So whether it's just through podcasts, so it's, it's so um, it's so improving, improvising for the women in the construction with respect to digitalization roles that I give certain podcasts like the current one. And also I do mentor various different uh, levels of professionals as well as uh, students or the, or a fresh uh, cohorts that would be coming. And uh, also I have planned my upcoming sessions with co branded uh, sessions like I told I mentioned, about organizations like um, collaborating with AAC International. The goal is to finally create pathways and it's not just inspiration. So this is what I perform in this PMI Global Construction Ambassador role.

Speaker A: Truly incredible the reach that you've had and the impact in so many different areas as well as the entire network that you had just talked about. There are some topics that Dr. Mala mentioned that are actually a part of our podcast series. So if you're interested in things like hearing about her take on um, ethical usage of AI and construction and maybe the potential impact of technology and AI in construction, look back or listen back on those episodes that we released as part of this series as well. But digging a little bit deeper into the PMI Global Construction Ambassador, I know there's something we, at least I failed to mention as the host here. The reason why women are highlighted in this week, women, uh, in construction Week. And the reason why women, uh, like Dr. Mahler out there advocating is when you look at the number, the ratio of women in construction in particular, look uh, at one of PMI's more recent reports around uh, the gender percentages within this space, especially when it comes to female project managers in construction. And the numbers are starkly different. Right. Dr. Mala, you're looking at somewhere between 10 to maybe 14% of the construction industry in the US are project management professionals that are in the construction industry who are women. So when you look at those numbers, it's critically important for somebody like Dr. Mala to come out here, here in this role as the PMI Global Construction Ambassador, to be advocating, to be educating, to be influencing in spaces where she can. So thank you for sharing what the role entails, which is a lot, so to speak. Uh, but as the Ambassador, let's talk a little bit about sense of belonging for women because that's in particular a topic of interest of mine. As well. That's essentially how you and I connected. So what specific strategies have you found most effective for creating a sense of belonging for women in construction? And how have you leveraged your ambassador. Ambassador role to advocate for that systemic change?

Speaker B: Yeah, so that's a, uh, really an important question because belonging doesn't happen by accident and it has to be designed, uh, and, and sometimes belonging doesn't just need to be something belonging to a single kind of group or a single kind of different, um, domains that they exit. One of the most effective strategies that I have seen is moving beyond your representation towards participation. So it's not just enough for women to be just in the room. Okay. They need to be actively shaping the conversations. So in, in my career that my career with respect to the projects that I have worked for, I've seen women in leadership roles. I felt really inspiring when I've seen the largest project that I've worked, the director role was a woman and another woman was also in the director role in my current company. Uh, but um, the thing is, thing, I mean like it, it drastically changed over a period of time. Even in the construction industry. When I started my career, I was the only female woman in the construction site. But now when I go to the construction site and see even the kind of leadership roles, I find drastic improvement has occurred. So I, I feel that they should be actively shaping their conversations around their domain knowledges. Like for instance, I was um, shaping the conversations with respect to my planning project controls roles like planning, risk management, claims, digitalization and decision making. And as a PMI Global Construction Ambassador, I felt that, I felt that my focus was primarily on three aspects. Firstly, visibility, so highlighting the women who are leading complex projects or programs, how they're managing the claims, or driving, um, uh, digitalization or change managers so that others see what's possible. The second aspect is accessibility. So giving them a kind of forum sessions like I've planned certain brown bag sessions, webinars and academia outreach for women where they can engage without gatekeeping. And the third aspect is systemic advocacy. So pushing organizations to rethink how they redefine the leadership success and expertise when women is being involved. So I also strongly believe in storytelling, whether it's through podcasts, visual storytelling, or even something simply like for instance, as a part of PMI Global Construction Ambassador, I'm simplifying the contract clauses using cartoons. So I created two cartoon characters and this is a visual storytelling. So these sort of approaches make technical knowledge also quite inclusive and less intimidating. Ultimately, belonging is built where people feel safe to contribute and they feel they need to be heard and grown. And that's where ambassadors can really influence not just culturally, um, but also even policy wise advocacy can be performed.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I think all of those aspects are also areas that I am familiar with in terms of the results of even my own research study in this area. And I love how you describe belonging and the various uh, facets that we can try to help increase that sense of belonging for women. Now Dr. Mala, this is a question that I've wanted to ask you our entire podcast series. So there are three episodes that we uh, uh, have now dropped in terms of our celebration, uh, of women in construction. This is the question that's been burning in the back of my brain which is this. You have so many roles that you play, including the PMI Global Construction Ambassador. You're also the co vice president of AACE New Jersey. Amongst all the other things that you do, how do you balance advancing your own career while actively mentoring and championing other women in construction? And what advice would you give to emerging female project managers who may feel isolated in their organizations in construction?

Speaker B: Well, truly speaking, um, it's definitely a balancing act. But I don't see career advancement and mentorship as competing priorities. I see them as mutually reinforcing. Had I not taken up those volunteering roles eight years ago, I wouldn't have been contributed or I wouldn't have been an influencing kind uh, of a role that I'm playing currently in the construction industry. In my leadership roles with AAC New Jersey and pmi, I've learned that your impact would multiply when you bring others along with you. So mentorship doesn't always mean a, uh, formal programs. Sometimes it's just as simple as making introductions like how we got connected.

Speaker A: Yes.

Speaker B: With each other, encouraging each of us. So I'm um, very, very impressed with Anne's contribution towards um, women in construction industry. So we both are also collaborating um, uh, have similar kinds of interests. So I feel that encouraging women or someone to speak up or helping them translate their technical expertise into confidence is something I look forward and for me balance uh, just comes from being intentional. So the moment when you keep in your mind that I, you're committed towards having a vision or a goal, you need to be committed towards that. And I ensure that when I am seriously committed towards it and putting efforts, definitely the universe is helping me out in clearing the obstacles. Yeah. So I align my professional growth with the initiatives that also create space for others, whether that's co authoring research, whether it's collaborating for patent, moderating the panels, or trying to invite emerging professionals into leadership conversations. So this is what I do. So, and to ensure that I'm not just um, stagnant or static for women, especially who feel isolated in their organizations, my advice this is that you are not just alone, even if it feels that way locally. You need to have some sort of seeking out professional communities. Let that be the um, North America Women in Construction and nawic, pmi, aac. You have Women Transportation seminar and others where your challenges are understood and your ambitions are supported. Don't wait until you feel completely vexed and don't wait until you feel ready to raise your hand. Because readiness often uh, comes after the opportunity and it's not just before. And finally, remember that your perspective is not a weakness, it's an asset. Construction just needs a diverse um, perspective ways of thinking now more than ever, especially as the projects are growing complex and digitally driven. I feel diverse perspective lens is definitely a must in these days. So uh, that's what.

Speaker A: And um, thank you very, very beautifully said, very inspiring. For those that are listening to Dr. Mala, I'm sure that these are things that you've also experienced as a, as a younger professional coming up in the industry as well. So I love that you said, you know, you're not at this alone. This is in multiplied. You know, we can, we can be a stronger force together. So that was really, really nice. Um, just to round out the conversation, Dr. Malo, what's next for you in terms of the PMI Global Construction Ambassador role? Is there anything upcoming this week or in this year that you're looking forward to as part of that?

Speaker B: Well, I have got a slew of uh, events that are scheduled.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker B: So for instance, uh, very recently, I um, mean like in this podcast itself, I have given three podcasts with respect to um, the everyday pm. Right. And um, I really appreciate um, Ann for taking this initiative and curating uh, sessions which are appropriate like the US Construction Workforce Crisis. And also the second session was on digital ethics and responsible AI in M Construction and the third one is now. So with respect to pmi, I have got my upcoming session with California State University, Fresno which I've planned on managing complexity in large construction projects using PMI's Interface Management Framework in the third week of March. And then I have co branded PMI and AAC webinars. Uh, that's another upcoming uh, session which um, would be uh, performed in the quarter two. And then I have brown bag sessions. So Brown bag sessions are like trying to collaborate with the organizations, um, with the projects that have been uh, involved in path breaking, uh, practices and all. And then I have another uh, two more aspects, especially visualizing the contract clauses through cartoons, which I was just mentioning you in the conversation. Yes, and I'm awaiting for this Research collaboration opportunities that are happening with respect to gender issues in the construction industry. So these are some of the upcoming um, events that I'm planning for pmi, uh, being as a PMI Global Construction Ambassador.

Speaker A: Yeah, and no shortage of events for folks to connect with this critical uh, topic as well as get involved or just listen in and educate yourself on women in construction. Dr. Mala, it has been a sincere honor and pleasure to host you on this podcast. I know you've been so giving of your time and your knowledge to our audience and I know that they are very appreciative, as AM I. So Dr. Malla, I'll make sure that all the appropriate links, whether it's to any of the events or just even to connect with you on LinkedIn, are posted as part of this podcast episode. If folks want to continue the conversation with you though, what's the best way to get in touch?

Speaker B: Uh, I believe um, LinkedIn and Gmail would be appropriate one.

Speaker A: Wonderful, wonderful. So I'll make sure I can share what I can, uh, so that you all can connect with Dr. Malla on any of the topics that you've heard as part of our podcast podcast series. And in celebration of Women in Construction Week, we are so honored again to have Dr. Mala as our very special guest. So that will do it for her and I on this installment of the Everyday PM podcast. Make sure to subscribe, like and comment on this podcast episode. You can find the Everyday PM on any of your podcasting platforms. You can also connect with me on LinkedIn if you'd like to continue the conversation with me as well. Well, so thank you so much again for your time Dr. Mala, and to our audience.

Speaker B: Yeah, thank you so much Anne for absolutely curating such wonderful sessions, thought provoking as well as um, the kind of initiatives that you're bringing up to is uh, something it needs to create a path breaking uh, platform for the construction practitioners as well as, as the other folks.

Speaker A: Uh, again my, my sincere honor and and pleasure to host and and advocate for this very important topic. So thank you everybody for listening and, and take care. Dr. It.