Her Stories In Housing with Diana Fisler, ADL Ventures

Calling All: Building material enthusiasts, building science gurus, and young technical people (especially women) considering their career path ––this one's for YOU!

As the only woman in the room for many years, Diana brings an interesting perspective –that it is possible to innovate in building materials and construction and that this is a fun and challenging sector to be in...

Check out ADL Ventures and connect with Diana on LinkedIn. View more HerStoriesInHousing on our website.

Many thanks to our partners at the University of Denver for their editing and post-production talents, specifically Lija Miller and Lisette Zamora-Galarza.

The University of Denver Franklin L. Burns School of Real Estate and Construction Management, teaches the full life cycle of the built environment. From integrated project leadership skills to a cohesive understanding of the built environment ––experience the only school of its kind!

"Upbeat Party" is brought to you by Scott Holmes, songwriter from Free Music Archive. 

Transcript

Eric Holt (00:05):

You're listening to the housing innovation Alliance podcast in partnership with the university of Denver's Franklin L burns school of real estate and construction management. The housing innovation Alliance is a nationwide community of game changers driving the future of home delivery through crowd accelerated innovation. We represent thought-leaders from dirt to dweller with a focus on the production builders business environment.

Betsy Scott (00:31):

Hi, this is Betsy Scott with the housing innovation Alliance. I'm excited to be here today with Diana Fisler of ADL ventures. Good morning, Diana. Good morning, Betsy. It's great to be here. We've known each other I think for seven or eight years at this point and I've been meaning to do this for a while with you. Last year we introduced this series called her stories and housing and I realized when we were doing that that I didn't know a whole lot about your background. If we go back to the beginning as it were, I was surprised to find out that you have a degree in geophysics from Penn state and that more than 40% of the degrees in that area, both graduate and undergraduate are among women, which I thought was fascinating. So why were you interested in the geosciences?

Diana Fisler  (01:14):

At the time that I did a degree in geophysics, there were, were not that many women in it actually, but it was a few years after that I started looking around and I realized that suddenly there were a huge number of women geosciences and I've seen that happen in various sciences. Originally I was a physics major when I was at U mass and I wandered into the geology department one day I'm a graduate student, showed me a thin section of a rock under polarized light and it has the most beautiful colors, all these fuchsias and pinks and blues and things. And I kind of fell in love with it. So I decided to go to graduate school for geophysics.

Betsy Scott (01:53):

Cool, very cool. So you were in essence a trendsetter, so it changed, you showed up. And then it became cool to be in jail.

Diana Fisler  (02:00):

It was me alone. They transformed geophysics.

Betsy Scott (02:06):

So as a geophysicist, what did you think your dream job was going to be when you were in school?

Diana Fisler  (02:12):

I don't know if you know, but in academia, in the sciences there's this sort of almost a snobbery about being a professor is the only worthy pursuit, at least back then. And I've heard it's still the same. And so I just assumed I was going to be a professor, that I would be faculty and do research without really questioning it too much. But I just always loved learning. So I knew for sure that it would be some sort of investigation or research, but I don't believe that I had a full picture of a dream job even when I was in school.

Betsy Scott (02:43):

So you were in building materials space for a really long time. How did you shift from thinking you were going to be a professor to getting into that realm?

Diana Fisler  (02:52):

So I had some friends from graduate school and um, you know, happened to mention I was on a postdoc. The funding was, was coming to an end and almost jokingly I said, Hey, you got a job for me. And my friend at Johns Manville said, well, as a matter of fact, I do and we need a glass chemist. My thinking at the time was that I would be a stronger scientist and a better researcher if I were to go into industry for a little while. It would compliment my skills as a researcher. Once I actually went and interviewed, I met some of the nicest people and I, I decided to give it a try. But then I never wanted to go back because what I loved about being an industry and building materials is the immediacy of the research you do. If you make a mistake or an innovation in building materials, there's an immediate payback because people want it, people want to use it, people want to build their houses from it. There's a strong driving force to find out if your research is correct. And I love that.

Betsy Scott (03:54):

So I know, you know, in working with you at JM that you had the opportunity to have products to use in both the commercial and residential construction areas. But as you know, in the Alliance we focus on housing. So my question to you is what interests you about how building materials are used in housing?

Diana Fisler  (04:14):

I think what interests me is the fact that they have to do so many things. The fact that the material has to be part of a structure that resists weather keeps people comfortable, that resists the flow of heat in and out so people can save energy as well as being, you know, having a living environment. We spend so much of our time inside our houses even more right now. Right. Every part of the house has to have so many properties that are integrated. The fact that materials have to do so many things in such a complex system I think is what I really like about housing, materials, building materials.

Betsy Scott (04:52):

So that kind of speaks back to what you were saying a few minutes ago about getting into the building materials space and seeing the impact. And you know how housing can really give you a personal quality of life impact that's immediate that you'd see in terms of comfort and durability and things like that. So, so that's very cool.

Diana Fisler  (05:12):

You mentioned durability and durability to unusual events too, right? Like flooding and fires and things like that. So there's the normal things your house has to do and then there's unusual events, right? Hurricanes and things like that. And your house has to take care of all that. It's pretty complex and it's really pretty fascinating when you look at it.

Betsy Scott (05:32):

Absolutely. So as a woman, what strengths do you think you've brought to building materials and the housing space?

Diana Fisler  (05:39):

When I think about this, I'm going to mention two things. What I've noticed, I'm going to talk about something a little more personal, is people seem to come to me for advice when they're struggling with their career or with difficult people. I think that's what the quality of a woman, but it could just be my personality, but a lot of people over years have found me to be someone to confide in and to seek measured advice from. And I really am quite proud of that. And the other thing I think is many, many times over the years, I've been the only woman in a room. In fact, I, I expected it to change and it hasn't changed over the course of decades. But I think what happened there is I've responded by listening more than talking, listening first before I respond. And I think I can bring that to collaborators and customers in the building space. So I listened to what the needs are before offering my solution. So I think those are the two things that come to my mind when you asked me that question.

Betsy Scott (06:38):

You know, we, we had an event last week that you participated in our staycation and we were talking about how now more than ever, we really need to listen because in most instances we're not face to face. And you know, 93% of our communications is nonverbal. So we have to be very good about the types of questions that we ask and really probing people to get input. So I would certainly agree with you that that is a, an advantage if you will. And kind of a unique thing that you've brought. I absolutely see that. Are there any other challenges that you faced having your voice heard or advancing in your career as being a party of one, if you will?

Diana Fisler  (07:17):

The vast majority of people working in the building construction materials industry are awesome people, smart, curious and supportive. And it's only once in a while that I've encountered the type that doesn't like to be disagreed with. Like they really hate it if I have a technical opinion that's different from theirs. And so that's probably one of the challenges I've seen. And so you know, back to the, how do you respond to that? I had to learn strategies for, for softening my technical opinion toward those people because you can't not express a technical opinion, but there's some people there, there's just a few that really just don't like to be disagreed with. So that's probably one of the biggest challenges I've seen. And it surprises me every time and that I, that I see it.

Betsy Scott (08:03):

So you also had at least Michelle Blackburn, who's, who's now our main contact at JM, said that you guys have a very strong woman at the helm or even the founder of jam. Do you think that affected the corporate culture and your role in the company at all?

Diana Fisler  (08:18):

So Mary is, is a fascinating person. She's an extremely disciplined person and I think it affects the way people see our company. They see our company as being led by a strong woman. And so the perception outside is shaped by her. What I think is really fascinating and terrific for the culture is the fact that she started as an intern during college, I believe and worked her way up through pretty much every role you can have at the company. So J M is in her blood and I actually think that affects our corporate culture more really even than her gender because she's, it sends the throughout the organization that this is a place where you can grow and really have a lifelong career.

Betsy Scott (09:01):

Absolutely. So what advice would you have for a young woman who's either entering the, or considering entering the building materials space or getting into the housing industry?

Diana Fisler  (09:12):

First of all, I tell any young woman I usually think about young women engineers is that housing is fun. Building materials and think about it, what we talked about a few minutes ago, a house, an office building. This is where you spend the majority of your time. It's really fascinating to help that to be better. It's fun, it's challenging. We believe you and I. That's the, I think both believe buildings are at a cusp of improving right now that the way we've been building buildings for hundreds of years is undergoing a big change right now to more of a manufacturing and fabrication mindset and that's going to provide tremendous opportunities in the next couple of decades. And so why would you not be at the front of an industry that is all around you and right about to be revolutionized. It's exciting.

Betsy Scott (10:05):

One last question for you. Most of the time that you and I have known each other, you were at Johns Manville, but you're now acting as a consultant through your own company called ADL ventures. If you could impact, you know in that contact one aspect of housing in the next five years, what would it be and why?

Diana Fisler  (10:24):

If I could influence every large scale builder, every serial builder to consider more prefabrication elements in their new projects, I would absolutely do that and then I would help to influence the building materials who are my main focus as clients to really look at enabling that process to look at now if we're going to build components in factories, how do we take this from swinging a hammer and hammering a nail in on the job site and how do we really bring building construction into the 20th and then the 21st century?

Betsy Scott (10:59):

Right. Absolutely. Well. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today and I am looking forward to seeing you again in person connecting online. And if you're interested in learning more stories about exciting women in the housing and building materials space, be sure to check out our, the remainder of our podcast series called her stories in housing. Thanks so much. Talk to you soon.

Eric Holt (11:30):

On behalf of the housing innovation Alliance and the university of Denver, this is Dr. Eric Holden. Thank you for being part of our journey. This is where innovation calls home. [inaudible].