Finding her way in roofing

By Anna Lockhart.  

Grace Kromos shares her inspiring story of finding her path in the roofing industry. 

In a recent episode of the Roofing Road Trips® podcast, host Megan Ellsworth sat down with Grace Kromos from Tremco WTI to discuss her career journey into the industry and her experience as a woman in roofing. They discuss the trials and triumphs she has faced over the years and how those challenges have led her to have a strong passion for her work.  

Grace began her career with Tremco back in 2018 as a student intern, majoring in construction management at Kent State University. Since then, she has loyally worked with Tremco and since 2021 has served as their construction manager of the South Atlantic region.  Her primary task in this role is project management, keeping up with various contractors and their current projects, ensuring things are on track and customers are satisfied.  

Grace shared, “[In this role], you basically have your hands in a lot of buckets. You're behind the scenes, you're on site, so you're kind of the management of everything. So, keeping everyone in line, making sure materials are there, we're on schedule, all sorts of things.” 

Grace opened up about the challenges that have come with starting out in the industry at such a young age. “This is all I've known. I started working with Tremco when I was 18. I'm 25 now. It was a lot to navigate. Not only was I learning how to become a construction manager, but I was learning Tremco products and all of the things about Tremco, all the different divisions, basically how we go to work,” she explained. “It was a lot to take on, and like I said, it was my first job, but I've had such a great team.” 

She found that there were plenty of her team members and coworkers who had years of experience and were willing to help and mentor her when she struggled. Not only did that help when it came to day-to-day tasks, but her fellow women at Tremco encouraged her to join National Women in Roofing (NWIR), an organization created to empower women in the roofing industry. 

Grace explained, “It's awesome to see that there's an organization that's there to support women and hope that one day, it becomes more of a norm that a female's opinion is allowed to be inserted in a male-dominant industry. So yeah, I love it. I've met a bunch of great people, read a bunch of great content, so it's awesome.” 

Read the transcript or Listen to the podcast to learn more about Grace’s journey and to hear her story working with Tremco WTI!