Women Leaders Contribute to Workforce Development

Workforce Development
Published
Contact: Greg Zick
[email protected]
AVP, Workforce Development
(202) 266-8493

Eva Fryar

This article has been updated.

More women are working in the home building industry and taking on leadership roles to help combat the ongoing labor shortage. Eva Fryar has helped bring industry professionals and students together.

In her previous leadership role with the Professional Women in Business Council (PWBC) in St. Louis, Fryar helped pilot a local secondary schools construction management competition. Meeting the faculty from the local technical high schools helped open the lines of communication and eventually led to forming of an NAHB student chapter. The student chapter has become PWBC’s central focus and a pipeline transporting young men and women from high school to careers in home building.

“I absolutely love working in this industry,” says Fryar, Division President of Stepping Stone Homes, the second largest home builder in the greater Milwaukee area.

Named to ProBuilder’s 40 Under 40 in 2018, Eva Fryar has a list of accomplishments that made her stand out in the home building industry. She helped grow a start-up company into one of the largest home builders in St. Louis, chaired the PWBC, and served as a judge and project sponsor for NAHB secondary competitions at the International Builders’ Show. In addition, she raised $4 million through the St. Jude Dream Home project.

Fryar has always been a builder, starting with Legos as a child. She began in Civil Engineering at Purdue University but wanted something more hands-on. A career counselor suggested Construction Management, and although her initial reaction was But I’m a girl!, a summer spent rough framing and roofing houses had her hooked. After college, her first job was as a superintendent with a home builder.

“I constantly wanted to do more and learn more,” says Fryar.

In 2009, she joined Payne Family Homes (now Fischer Homes), a small start-up company and created an estimating/purchasing department from scratch. Later as VP of Construction Operations of the rapidly growing company, she oversaw purchasing/estimating, field construction and architecture, and worked closely with sales, land acquisition and accounting. She eventually joined Stepping Stone Homes.

NAHB has new videos to help promote women in the construction trades. Visit the workforce development resource page to download and share the videos.

Sponsored By

Builders Mutual logo

Subscribe to NAHBNow

Log in or create account to subscribe to notifications of new posts.

Log in to subscribe

Latest from NAHBNow

Advocacy

May 22, 2025

House Approves Tax Bill with Key Housing and Business Provisions

By a vote of 215-214, the House early in the morning on May 22 narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, sweeping tax and domestic policy legislation that NAHB believes is very positive for small businesses, real estate and our members.

Economics | Indices

May 22, 2025

Income Growth Helps Mute Existing Affordability Constraints

Despite solid income gains and lower home prices, Americans still continue to face major housing affordability challenges, according to the latest data from the NAHB/Wells Fargo Cost of Housing Index (CHI). The CHI results from the first quarter of 2025 show that a family earning the nation’s median income of $104,200 needed 36% of its income to cover the mortgage payment on a median-priced new home. Low-income families, defined as those earning only 50% of median income, would have to spend 72% of their earnings to pay for the same new home.

View all

Latest Economic News

Economics

May 22, 2025

Existing Home Sales Fall in April

Despite the brief retreat in mortgage rates and increased supply, existing home sales dropped to 7-month low in April, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). This unexpected decline suggests buyers’ activity continues to be constrained by economic uncertainty and ongoing affordability challenges even with improved market conditions.

Economics

May 22, 2025

Income Growth Helps Mute Existing Affordability Constraints

Despite solid income gains and lower home prices, Americans still continue to face major housing affordability challenges, according to the latest data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Cost of Housing Index (CHI).

Economics

May 21, 2025

Gains for Multifamily Missing Middle over Last Year

The missing middle construction sector includes development of medium-density housing, such as townhouses, duplexes and other small multifamily properties.