Tanya Pope Joins Panel on Minority- and Women-Owned Businesses at New York Build

Tanya Pope, Assistant Vice President of Supplier Diversity and Business Integration, helped lead a panel on New York’s Minority- and Women-Owned Business Enterprise (MWBE) process at the 2018 New York Build Expo.

At the annual event, which brings together vendors, buyers and experts from across the construction industry, Pope emphasized the University’s commitment to working with and supporting diverse vendors.

April 09, 2018


“We are proud that Columbia is going beyond our commitments to support minority-, women-, and local-owned vendors,” she said, detailing that the University has recently exceeded its goals of 35% construction spend and 40% construction workforce, reaching 37.8% and 51% in fiscal year 2017.

During the hour-long panel, Pope also shared her expertise and first-hand knowledge of the state’s MWBE certification process, and discussed both short-term and long-term benefits for businesses of becoming MWBE certified.

Other panelists at the Javits Center event included Crystal D. Turner-Moffatt of CDT EHS Consulting LLC, Santos Rodriguez of Construction Skills Careers, and Kendra E. Logan of KELRA consultants.

After the panel discussion, Pope and the other panelists spent two hours at a networking event, speaking one-on-one with businesses from the audience to offer individual advice and encouragement as attendees also networked with each other.