When Lalitha Benjaram completed her civil engineering degree at University of California Davis in 2014, she was excited to start her career in water resources at Mead & Hunt. She expected to learn more about the industry, complete her PE certification, and find her passion in engineering. She never anticipated her passion would lead to a position in Human Resources.
Now, as the company’s first Diversity and Inclusion Program Manager, Lalitha is making an impact in an industry that has traditionally been represented by people who don’t look like her. In this role, she is empowered to think outside the box and lead initiatives that incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging throughout Mead & Hunt and the AEC industry at large.
Including diverse perspectives is vital for our firm and industry to tackle the big problems we face. Not only does increasing diversity and inclusion consistently lead to better business outcomes, but it’s also the right thing to do. That’s why this goal is so important to Lalitha.
“I really want everyone to feel safe coming into work, feel like they can be themselves, share their opinions and thoughts, and contribute to the team,” she says. “I also hope we can diversify the talent pipeline so we can have a team that represents everyone who uses the infrastructure we help build.”
Carving her own path
Lalitha says that the collaborative culture at Mead & Hunt has always made it easy to jump on a new project or learn a new skill. Since her first year as an engineer-in-training, she was encouraged to pursue work that excited her, so she jumped at the opportunity to join the Ethnic Minorities Interest Group. From there, it was an easy transition to becoming one of two part-time Employee Resource Group (ERG) Managers, alongside Anita Cobb in 2021.
“We immediately brainstormed and came up with at least three pages of items that we wanted to do,” says Lalitha, recalling her first meeting with the HR team. “They kept reminding us you can’t to do everything at once. But we were just super passionate.”
As they settled into their roles, their strengths complimented each other. Lalitha naturally fell into coordinating DEIB resources and ERG groups internally, and Anita gravitated toward the project side, connecting with clients and professional organizations.
Making an impact
In just one year, their efforts were making an impact. Their work supported the creation of Project Confluence, a professional development program designed to help engineers, planners, and architects create human-centric and equitable designs to positively impact communities. Fifteen Mead & Hunt employees worked with academics from Arizona State University to create a blueprint for diversity, equity, and inclusion in our project work, eventually presenting their findings to Mead & Hunt’s Board of Directors.
Anita and Lalitha were able to represent Mead & Hunt at various conferences, leading sessions on inclusion, unconscious bias, diversity, and environmental justice. They also led the charge to become more involved in minority-focused professional organizations, officially partnering with the Society of American Military Engineers (SAME), Conference of Minority Transportation Officials (COMTO), and Airport Minority Advisory Council (AMAC).
As the company made strides to become more inclusive in all facets of its work, the pair were feeling stretched between their part-time roles and the rest of their responsibilities. It was becoming clear that there was a need to invest in full-time roles dedicated to DEIB. Luckily, there were two outstanding candidates ready to take the jobs.
In 2022, Anita was promoted to Aviation Equity Strategies Market Leader, and Lalitha shifted to her full-time role as Diversity and Inclusion Program Manager in the HR office. But even as their roles have shifted and grown, Anita has remained steadfast as one of Lalitha’s biggest supporters.
“Lalitha is one of those people with an undeniable passion for seeing people have the dignity, support, and opportunities that they deserve. She brings me and so many others such peace and optimism. Her partnership and radiant energy have both personally and professionally made me a better woman,” says Anita, reflecting on her work alongside Lalitha.
Looking forward
In Lalitha’s new role, her duties include managing Mead & Hunt’s Employee Resource Group, contributing to the company’s outreach program, and serving as a resource and advocate for all employees. But she says that part of her role is simply maintaining the inclusivity that has always been part of the culture.
“Now we talk about DEIB all the time, but even before we started the program, we had all these great ways that the company was trying to be inclusive and take care of all of our different employees,” she says. “This is something that’s just ingrained with our culture. It’s intrinsically part of what Mead & Hunt is.”
Even then, there is still work to be done. Long-term, Lalitha hopes her efforts can help diversify the talent pipeline, opening the industry to people from all groups and backgrounds. She hopes that she can help the company consider perspectives from groups that haven’t historically had a seat at the table and contribute to ongoing conversations in a productive way.
“Having more perspectives, having a better working environment, maintaining the inclusive culture we have — everyone benefits from that,” she says. “And it’s something that everyone can contribute to.”
Learn more about our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging »
