S2:E54 Jess Cress – NWIR’s Leadership is Advancing Social Change in the Roofing Industry

By Colin Sheehan, RCS Reporter. 

Listen to learn about Jess Cress and her role in NWIR’s diversity, equity and inclusion committee. 

On this installment of Roofing Road Trips, RoofersCoffeeShop® partner, Heidi J. Ellsworth sits down with Jess Cress of Bone Dry Roofing Company to discuss current events in the roofing industry regarding diversity, equity and inclusion. Heidi and Jess also talk about National Women in Roofing’s (NWIR) new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee as well as the committee’s plans for overcoming fear and ignorance that obstructs social change.  

Jess “fell into roofing” while going to school for pediatric psychiatry and music. “I'm a lot like a lot of people who are in our industry,” said Jess, “I just kind of fell into it. They say that asphalt gets into your blood.”  

Jess was working for SRS Distribution and after college decided to focus completely on roofing. While doing acquisition work for SRS, Jess was able to work under a few contractors and began to understand what a contractor does on a daily basis.   

“I was like, I'm inquisitive, let's work for a contractor. So I found two women in Jacksonville who I'd actually sold products to, and they run and operate a roofing company. They took me on, put me out on the roof for the first year and a half. It was probably the best instruction that I've had in my career thus far,” said Jess. 

Jess left SRS in 2019 to return home to Georgia and help her mom. Shortly after her move, she accepted a position with Bone Dry Roofing Company and is now the special project manager, marketing person and drone pilot. Jess also led a CRM software implementation throughout the entire company, and she got it done in one year. 

“I had my first roofing a-ha moment [at Bone Dry]. I was walking down the halls on my first day, and there are these huge pictures of all of the projects that they've done throughout the years. As I was walking through this hallway, I’m like, there is nothing that I have touched that is as amazing as this work. And I had my a-ha, that I am part of something bigger,” said Jess. 

Jess, alongside Rae July of Chinook Roofing, is the co-chair for the newly formed Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) committee for NWIR. The movement towards a more equitable industry continues to be piloted by NWIR, an organization that originally formed to provide women with networking and mentoring opportunities. NWIR now finds itself stretching its wings to help other disadvantaged groups find rewarding careers in roofing. 

“DEI has been the brainchild of NWIR for quite a while. It probably came from the fact that National Women in Roofing is the safe space for the minority group of women. Over time, we recognized very quickly that there was a lot more involved in that minority than just women,” said Jess. 

One of NWIR’s main goals for the end of 2020 was to fill out the DEI committee and to have liaisons connected to all other NWIR committees. This further ensures that the perspective of diversity, equity and inclusion will have a place in all NWIR endeavors.  

"We have someone sitting on those other committees, and also coming back to us, and being able to have those conversations and make the tough remarks when they're necessary,” said Jess. 

The DEI committee’s main goal is education, and their methods focus on bringing people out of comfort zones in order to overcome the fear and ignorance that tend to block social change. Jess understands that DEI can be a touchy subject, however, she and the entire committee believe that through celebrating difference and diversity some of that fear can be overcome. 

“We're definitely going to push the envelope a little bit,” said Jess. “With our goals, we're trying to focus on celebrating people who are most unlike ourselves. We really want to celebrate differences and diversity. Once we start celebrating those differences, people are going to start learning and gaining a little more knowledge of those differences, which will alleviate some of that fear. And then the industry as a whole will be able to include more people, which is our main goal.” 

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about Jess and what NWIR is doing to further advance DEI in the roofing industry.