Kitchell CEM recently named Vice President Wendy Cohen leader of the company’s Northern California region and Kevin Pokrywa as Regional Executive for Southern California. “Since joining us five years ago, Wendy has had an incredible impact on our profile in Southern California,” said Kitchell CEM President Russ Fox. “She came to us with a broad base of experience in healthcare and has grown our footprint with municipalities, education, justice and other markets. Moving her into the Northern California region – closer in proximity to more of our public-sector work – is a strategic decision that will be a great benefit to our clients and our employee-owners,” he said. Wendy assumes the role previously held by Executive Vice President Mansour Aliabadi, who will transition out of the day-to-day operations. Since joining Kitchell five years ago, Wendy has rapidly expanded Kitchell’s presence in Southern California. Under her leadership, Kitchell has become a go-to source for entities seeking guidance for bond measures, long-term capital improvement plans and engineering assessments. She opened two new offices in Los Angeles and Riverside and dramatically grew Kitchell’s Southern California workforce. She came to Kitchell after serving as Director of Facilities, Planning and Development at Escondido, Calif.-based Palomar Health where she oversaw the execution of a $1 billion-plus master plan. A native of San Diego, Wendy has been a finalist for San Diego Business Woman of the Year and Outstanding Women in Construction & Design. She was Read More

The American Hospital Association’s American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) has presented a prestigious Vista Award to Kitchell and others who were part of designing and building the UC San Diego Jacobs Medical Center in La Jolla, Calif. “This project was and still is a milestone project for Kitchell,” said Kitchell Contractors President Steve Whitworth. “For many years Jacobs was the largest healthcare project in San Diego County, and the collaboration lessons learned from that experience reverberate throughout our projects today.” The Vista Awards are not design awards, but rather recognize the significance of collaboration, communication and teamwork in creating optimal healthcare environments. It is considered the ultimate national recognition in healthcare building and engineering. Jacobs Medical Center was honored in the category of New Construction. The project team’s transformational approach facilitated an environment of risk-taking and supporting each other. Team members who didn’t adapt to the project’s high-performance team culture were moved to more structured roles, if necessary. Innovation began at the earliest phases, with end-users including patients, family members, medical and hospital staff providing insights and continuous feedback that informed the design and environments. The Jacobs Medical Center project transformed an existing community hospital into a world-class academic institution. The five-year, $972.9 million project encompassed four distinct phases: enabling projects to prepare the site for development, building an award-winning LEED Gold, 40,000-square-foot central utility plant, selectively renovating the existing community hospital and ultimately constructing the 245-bed, 10-story patient tower. “This is the Read More

  Wendy’s article appeared in a special section of the Feb. 25th issue of the San Diego Business Journal. Our Southern California Vice President Wendy Cohen was recently named to the San Diego Business Journal’s List of the Most Influential Women in Construction & Design. Article below: Wendy Cohen is a rock star in the construction management field. That’s how one co-worker describes the Southern California regional V.P. of Kitchell. Project owners hire construction and program management companies to steer the process of entitlements, design, building, engineering and procurement. Cohen and her team are experts in this area for K-14 education, health care and municipal clients. Her reputation as a strong mentor stems from her passion for creating high-performing teams within projects. Her accomplishments over the past year included opening a Los Angeles office for Kitchell and securing a five-year contract with Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Works. In addition, she facilitated several high-performing teams for work at UC San Diego, notably the largest project in the campus’ history: the North Torrey Pines Living and Learning Neighborhood. Prior to Kitchell, Cohen led the $1 billion Palomar Health program. It was a pivotal time in her career and established a foundation for the way she manages and directs people and projects. Cohen’s infectious passion extends to her volunteer work and her outdoor pursuits. She has trekked rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon with cancer survivors, and has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.     The post Read More