Hispanic Heritage Month Partner Perspective: Kelly Coogan

Hispanic Heritage Month Partner Perspective: Kelly Coogan 

Kelly Coogan, Project Director, reflects on her cherished family tradition of making tamales during the holidays and the powerful influence of her Mexican heritage on her personal life and career in construction.

As each December approached during her childhood years and even beyond, the anticipation and excitement would grow for McCarthy Building Companies Northern Pacific Region Project Director Kelly Coogan. 

Not long before Christmas, the familiar voices of relatives would fill a crowded kitchen as her mother joined various aunts, cousins and her beloved abuelita (grandma)in the time-honored Mexican tradition of making tamales for the holiday season. 

As they carefully mixed the masa (dough), spices and savory fillings and wrapped the tamales in corn husks, it wasn't just the sights and sounds of food being made. This was a labor of love, with recipes, stories and traditions passed down from generation to generation. 

All that warmth didn't just come from the steamers and pots on the stove. It was the love of family enjoying something that brought them all together again and again. 

It was a complete bonding experience connecting family members to each other - and to loved ones no longer around but still held in respect and close to the heart. 

"There would be a huge tamale-making party for days on end leading up to Christmas, then we'd have a huge celebration with all of our aunts and uncles and cousins," Coogan said. "It was a big event that would go on for hours and hours." 

Coogan enjoyed everything about the process - and being part of the family tradition.

"I remember being in the kitchen with my aunts and my grandma because it was such an arduous process to make them, so time-consuming," she recalled. "Just listening to them talk and the kitchen filled with love as we kept running in and out trying to steal pieces of the filling. It takes a lot of love to make them - and it's a lot of commitment." 

The importance of Hispanic Heritage Month

Coogan was born in Southern California to a mixed-race family. Her mother, Esther, is first-generation Mexican-American from a family of 13, including eight brothers and sisters and five more half-brothers and sisters. Kelly's father, Dave Coogan, can trace his lineage to Ireland, England and the Cherokee Native American tribe of North America. 

Her maternal grandparents  - Jose and Esperanza Mendoza - are from Michoacan and Guadalajara in Mexico. Kelly's parents moved from Southern California to the small Northern California town of Kenwood when she was less than a year old.   

"In California, we're a little unique," Coogan said. "The Hispanic culture is part of the fabric of the California culture. It is so blended that sometimes we don't take opportunities to look back at where everyone came from - and where people are still trying to come from. 

"Many people emigrated from Mexico and other Hispanic countries and I feel like our country is built on a lot of the hard work they provide." 

A proud heritage

Coogan's abuelito (grandpa) came to the U.S. as a bracero (a migrant farmworker). Her abuelita was a seamstress when the couple met. They started their family in La Habra, eventually settling in the Hacienda Heights neighborhood in Southern California. 

"My mom came from a classic strict Mexican family," Coogan said. "She was a farmworker like her brothers and sisters, picking strawberries, tomatoes and other seasonal crops when they were 13 years old on the weekends and as summer jobs. 

"Seeing where my mom and her family came from and how hard they worked to be who they are today … that has really driven me to reach where I am now."

A tradition of builders

Coogan's father was a carpenter who built homes and also owned an apartment building in Costa Mesa. 

Perhaps because his wife was Mexican-American - and his knowledge as a surfer about the famed Mexican Pipeline waves on the Pacific coast - Coogna'ss father eventually built a second family home in Puerto Escondido in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. 

"We still go down there almost every year, and my mom will go multiple times a year," Kelly said. "My parents wanted me to be immersed in Mexican culture and for me, that brought an awareness that everywhere is not like it is in the U.S."

Having roots in both countries allowed her to experience the best of two cultures. 

"I definitely felt very blessed and felt loved growing up," she said. "The Hispanic side of my family drew my father's side into theirs; they are the dominant culture in our family. We are very family-oriented and we welcome everybody and anybody with lots of love." 

Kelly's beloved abuelito even came up with a nickname for her - "Kali California." One of her favorite memories were the Santa outfit and elf costumes her grandmother would painstakingly sew by hand for the grandchildren. 

Kelly's McCarthy journey

While studying Construction Management at Chico State in 2006, Coogan did a McCarthy Building Companies internship at Kaiser Vallejo Hospital. That led to a full-time job as a project engineer in 2007 after graduation and she continued working on the hospital project. 

As she went from senior engineer to project manager, her journey took her to Kaiser Oakland and later Marin General Hospital. That healthcare connection took an interesting twist while Kelly was serving as the OSHPD liaison for final project sign-off. 

"I was seven months pregnant when we finally got the hospital opened, so that was a proud and unique moment for me with all those day-long meetings we had at the time," said Coogan, who gave birth to a daughter, Roslyn, at Santa Rosa Kaiser Hospital.

Some difficulties at birth led mother and daughter to be transferred back to a familiar spot - the same Kaiser Oakland facility she had once helped build. 

"She was in the NICU (natal intensive care unit) there for eight days at the same place I had worked at for a big part of my career," said Coogan, promoted to project director while on maternity leave. "As things got better for Roslyn, I was able to talk to the nurses about all the experiences I had there while building the hospital." 

Kelly and husband Toby Dodd are looking forward to celebrating Roslyn's fourth birthday in November. 

"We are blessed," Coogan said. 

After Marin General, she transitioned to the San Francisco International Airport project and currently oversees design-build delivery at Mission Bay School in San Francisco. 

Coogan sees the Hispanic culture influence daily in the construction industry. 

"I have a ton of respect for the skill of people who come from the Hispanic culture, the carpenters and masons and craftsmen," she said.

Some are surprised when they learn of Kelly's Hispanic roots. 

"They find it surprising when I start speaking Spanish to the crews or they find out my middle name is Mendoza," she said. "I don't look Hispanic, but if you compared a picture of me to some of my family from Guadalajara, I do look a lot like them. I look exactly like my mom." 

Being able to speak Spanish is also a plus on jobsites. 

"At Kaiser Oakland, I was in charge of the entire exterior package and roofing was part of that," she said. "I was able to talk to the roofers and speak with them in Spanish, it helped build another layer of connection and respect with them. Our craft professionals play such an impactful role in everything we build and establishing a better connection with them is so important to me - and our business." 

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