Welcome Leslie Olson - the newest member of our amazing construction team!
Leslie Olson knows a thing or two about growing things after a career as a landscape architect. As the newest member of the Flatirons Habitat for Humanity staff, she is now focusing on growing her passion for affordable housing.
Leslie started with us a few weeks ago as construction assistant and is getting hands-on as she does so.
Owner of a landscape architecture firm she founded in 2007, Leslie’s passion for affordable housing started when she was recruited as a board member for Goose Creek Community Land Trust (formerly Goose Creek Neighborhoods). The organization preserves and advocates for permanently attainable homes for middle-income families in Boulder County. Which continues to take on greater importance, she said, because of the ever-rising real estate prices in the region.
The job with Flatirons Habitat only further helped her focus her personal and professional goals. Now she is focusing on learning as much as she can on our construction sites. Her background means she can read plans, and she knows the basics of residential construction (thanks in part to “watching a lot of HGTV”), but not the real “nitty gritty.”
“That’s what’s fun about working on the site,” she said, adding she enjoys the physicality of the work and the chance to learn every day. “That’s what I like,” she said. “You get bored in life doing the same old thing. The brain stimulation of working in a new area is very exciting to me.”
A graduate of Colorado State University and mom to a 17-year-old rising senior at Boulder High, she enjoys travel and (shocking for a landscape architect, we know) gardening in her free time.
And in her work time she enjoys just about everything, especially working with our amazing volunteers.
“I love being hands-on and working with a wide array of people,” she said. “We get volunteers from all walks of life coming together to do a project.”
We’re happy to have her expertise and experience to add to the mix. Welcome Leslie, we’re glad you’re here
