Lisa Branch, 37

Lisa Branch was working in management for a big box retailer when her position got eliminated.

She had been working for the company for about 12 years at the time and bosses offered for her to stay on, working in another department. Branch had held several positions at the chain but had grown tired of the retail world.

Photo by Mark Wemple

Thanks to a friend, she took a new job as an administrative assistant at Suffolk Construction Co.

That move, shifting from retail management to construction, turned out to be one of the best decisions she ever made.

“I love solving complex problems and I truly enjoy the people that I work with,” says Branch, who has risen through the ranks and today is a project manager at Suffolk in the construction giant's Southwest Florida office. 

“That's what makes it so much fun. All the way from the team members that I have who work alongside me to the subcontractors that I deal with day in and day out.”

What Branch calls fun is the multifaceted and complicated process of turning a bare piece of land into a building.

Her current project is the 128-unit Ritz-Carlton Residences under construction near the beach in Naples. The Ritz will be made up of three buildings with plans for a fourth. There are two towers that are 12 stories high with an amenity deck in between and one mid-rise building that has six stories with a rooftop deck. 

As project manager, her duties include overseeing the day-to-day processes and procedures that go into a development of this scale. That includes being a conduit between the designers and crews on the site, making sure finances are in order and keeping everything on schedule.

Being a good project manager, especially the part of managing all the moving parts, is something Branch could trace to her mentor, her aunt, Janna Martinez. "I can attribute much of my growth as a person to her as I have always admired her poise and kindness," Branch writes in her 40 under 40 questionnaire. 

And, no matter how hard project management gets, when you compare it to the other part of her life, it is relatively easy: Branch is also a foster parent.

She grew up in difficult circumstances, spending much of her youth moving from family to family. That experience gave her the desire to help children going through what she had.

The desire grew as she would walk past empty rooms in her Naples home. Branch and her husband, Nathan, struggled with fertility and as she walked past those bedrooms there was a realization that they could go to someone in need.

They were financially stable and in a good place career wise. So why not?

Branch "specializes" in therapeutic foster care, taking in children with severe trauma and behavioral issues. Six children in the past three years have come live with her and last year she adopted one of them, 11-year-old Jake. 

“I grew up wanting to make a difference,” Branch says.

“My ultimate goal is to make an impact on someone's life in any sort of way possible. Even if it's not every day. Even if it's just something small.”