LEADERSHIP

WCOE is focused on helping our members’ businesses to grow and prosper. Dedicated to creating a level playing field for women-owned firms in the construction industry, WCOE is proud to represent large and small women-owned firms as well as executive women in policy-making positions with some of the largest corporations in the country.

WCOE has a prestigious reputation on Capitol Hill and uses that influence to advocate for issues important to women who have entered the construction industry. Whether it is equal to federal contracting opportunities, opposition to onerous federal regulatory burdens, support for expanding access to business financing or participation in Congressional hearings, WCOE represents our members’ business interests.

2026 WCOE OFFICERS

Karen Barbour is the President and Founder of The Barbour Group, LLC (TBG), a nationally licensed surety brokerage firm she established in 2002. TBG is a certified DBE, WBE, WOSB, and WBENC firm with offices in Maryland and Tennessee, focused on construction bonding and industry advocacy.

Karen began her surety career in 1985 and has long championed small and minority contractors. Her advocacy led to a Federal Acquisition Regulation change in 1997 and major legislative wins, including Maryland’s Subcontractors Equal Access to Bonding Act (2013) and the Change Order Fairness Act (2016). She also helped reform lien and prompt payment laws in MD and VA.

In 2009, she was named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Small Business Person of the Year (MD) for lobbying efforts that expanded SBA bonding support. She has testified before Congress as a subject matter expert and served on various government advisory boards, including the U.S. SBA National SBDC Advisory Board and the Governor’s Commission for Small Business (MD).

Karen is Co-Founder of the Alliance for Hispanic Commercial Contractors and Party For A Cure, which raises funds for children with neuromuscular diseases. She also leads an exclusive, national surety bond program with Hensel Phelps Construction Co., which has bonded over $180 million in subcontracts with zero losses. .

Founder & President
The Barbour Group LLC

Karen Barbour (President)

Lynette Thompson (Secretary)

Lynette Thompson works for Gresham Smith in their Risk Management Corporate Services Group. She assists the team in contract reviews, insurance placements, claims management and risk mitigations practices for the firm. She brings a wealth of knowledge from her years as a Risk Manager and Insurance Broker to internal and external clients.

She has spent half of her career in Risk Manager in the Engineering and Construction industry and the other years as an Insurance Broker. Lynette's experience is not solely for work within the United States but includes working with companies that were operating in various countries around the world. She has 30+ years of knowledge and experience in the construction industry.

Senior Risk Manager
Gresham Smith

Mary Theresa Duffy (Treasurer)

CFO
Scale Construction Inc.

Mary Theresa Duffy is owner of Scale Construction Inc. is a 35-plus-year-old, owner-operated company in Chicago near the South Side. Scale seeks clients whose goals closely match the company's: to build a quality product safely, efficiently, and cost-effectively.

Such client relationships are the basis for Scale's success. Scale offers the finest construction management and engineering services from a project's conception through completion. The firm is a certified WBE and MBE construction manager and general contractor that can self-perform rough and finish carpentry and concrete.

Deborah Wilder (President-Elect)

President - Contractor Compliance & Monitoring

Deborah Wilder has been a licensed attorney in Oregon and California for more than 40 years, specializing in labor and employment law. She is the founder and president of Contractor Compliance and Monitoring Inc., a third-party consulting company that helps public agencies and large developers/prime contractors monitor, audit, review and comply with state and federal wage requirements, including negotiating and complying with Project Labor Agreements.

Her firm is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area with offices in San Diego, Phoenix, Seattle, and Maryland.

Wilder is the former mayor of Foster City, CA, and past national president of WCOE. She is the author of three books

"What Every Contractor Should Know About Prevailing Wages", "AGC of America's Davis Bacon Compliance

Manual", and "Davis Bacon Handbook for Public Agencies".

LEADERSHIP