Meet Kimberly Santiago-Vega: The Female Roofer Breaking Stereotypes

By Cayden Wemple.  

This roofer did a complete 180 when she switched her career in academia to roofing. 

You won’t come across too many cases where someone finds themselves switching careers from collegiate course designer to roofing instructor, but that’s the exact switch that 36-year-old Kimberly Santiago-Vega decided to make.

Kimberly’s job of designing courses for the Ohio State University PhD program was starting to leave her unfulfilled, and she started thinking about her part-time job that she had during college: a construction subcontractor. She had such a fascination with the way that roofs are built, that she decided to quit her job and pursue a career building roofs. She told the Washington Post, “I’ve always been a hands-on person and roofing is something that really intrigued me.” But her parents were not particularly impressed. “My parents were shocked,” she said. “They were like, ‘You have this education — you’ve been studying your whole life. And now you’re just going to give it up? That’s crazy!’” That sentiment has not slowed her down in the slightest, however.  

Kimberly became a licensed roofer as well as an instructor at the GAF Roofing Academy, which is a nationwide training academy for roofers. Since graduating from the academy herself four years ago, she now belongs in an elite club which she calls the “shingle ladies” that includes “female roofing instructors and contractors with a passion for installing neat rows of shingles or tiles on steep surfaces.” 

Kimberly also just taught at a free, two-week GAF Roofing Academy workshop exclusively for women. She hoped that her presence would help empower women who wanted to be in roofing. “Women can play an important role in filling the shortages in the industry,” Kimberly said, “To those who think we can’t do it, guess what? We’re proving them wrong every day.” 

Lauren Morley, who co-owns R3NG, a Denver-based roofing contracting company, was also seeking to empower women attending the GAF Roofing Academy's job fair in her city. She told the Washington Post, “There aren’t very many women doing what I do, and I’d love to convince more of them to give roofing careers a try.” 

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About Cayden  

Cayden is a reporter for RoofersCoffeeShop, MetalCoffeeShop and AskARoofer. When he isn’t writing about roofs, he’s usually playing guitar or writing songs for his musical endeavors.