Celebrating 10 years of National Women in Roofing

Inspiring leadership stories, meaningful education, hands-on training and a powerful sense of community made NWIR Days 2026 an event to remember. 

Editor’s note: The following is a transcript of a conversation between the Coffee Shop crew about NWIR Days 2026. 

Karen Edwards: National Women in Roofing 2026 just ended, and it was an amazing day. It was a great event. I think one of my favorite parts about the day was the opening session where the four co-founders, Jennifer Ford Smith, Jenny Stone, Shari Carlozzi and Heidi J. Ellsworth shared the story of how the organization started and what they had to do to get things off the ground. And I would say probably 20% of the room were first timers, and so these are folks who've never heard that before, because they haven't been here the whole time. And the reason that that was the morning session was because National Women in Roofing is celebrating their 10-year anniversary since becoming incorporated as a 501 c6 in 2016, so it was amazing to see where it started and where it is now. And they really, really made the event great.  

You know it was interesting and exciting because it went by real fast. Another thing that I really enjoyed was Megan led a panel on building loyalty with your employees, and it was about how to help working parents and how you can support them and how you can make it easier for them. And that was a panel that had Jenny Stone, Cool Roof Rating Council’s Jeff Steuben and Kyra Coker from National Roofing Partners. And you know, we have a lot of young folks here that are becoming parents for the first time. And so understanding what are some things that we can do to support it was really valuable.  

And then, of course, the Skills Lab. You get to see the products, you get to try stuff out, you get to try welding. It was just a really, really well-rounded day. And you know, thank you to Christee Roberson for her leadership. And we're looking forward to Christine Mockenhaupt taking the reins for 2026. 

Lauren White: I agree, the day went by really quick. As for the breakout sessions, there were fewer of them, but they were longer, which was really nice because people could really get into having a conversation, asking questions, getting good advice and feedback from everybody else in the room. Last year it sometimes felt like we were rushed to get to the next session, but not this year.  

We had the awards during lunch. It was really fun to celebrate the Rising Stars and the WORLD Award winners. They did Council Awards again this year, and the councils are doing some really incredible things. And the WORLD Award winner for this year is Michelle Ly with Hallmark Roofing in Austin, Texas, and the Rising Star Award is Liz Garza with SRS Distribution, which was really fun to celebrate them.  

We had a really fun time at the Skills Lab. Dani and I did some heat welding and some pull tests. We write about all these companies and materials and products, and it was really fun to just feel them and touch them and work with them.  

Dani Sheehan: I agree. It was really well planned out. I really appreciated having the awards during lunch and being able to network through that and then also having the break in between sessions, just getting us up and moving was really great.  

I also think the Skills Lab was my favorite part. Just having so many hands-on demonstrations, the QXO challenge during the networking break was really fun to watch, and I think we were able to capture some great videoto see who could put down the ISO board the fastest. So that was really cool to see.  

And just again, being in this room where women are building each other up, and there's not competition, and we're just all here together, learning about roofing, being in this industry, creating this community. I lovedgetting to meet Kim with Division 7 Roofing and hang out with her. Mandy's session at the end was a great way to close everything out. Her session, Speaking Up, To Show Up: Building Confidence in Work and Life, was so great and it was great to feel the energy in that room. And I think she just helped us all get rid of that imposter syndrome that we all feel in the workplace.  

Camden Bennett: This is my first NWIR Day, and going into IRE it was really fun to see how much energy all the women exuded here, and how, even though some of our companies might be competitors, everyone was very friendly, and clearly wanted to know what others had to say.  

My first session was, Roofing is Like a Sandwich, Understanding the Basics with Lynn Picone and Kimberly Santiago-Vega with GAF and I got to see some of the technical errors that people make, and how to remedy those, and how even little mistakes can cause huge problems with roofing and can be quite costly, and then how to avoid those in the future. The Skills Lab was also my favorite. It's fun to be able to use the things that we are writing about, posting or promoting. As for the Speak Up session, it was interesting to see what other people had to say and have some good discussion. It was eye opening. 

Jessica Bravo: I attended Roofing 101, Covering the Basics with GAF. It was really informative, and Kimberly and Lynn are very knowledgeable. And like everyone said, Skills Lab was my favorite, watching Camden use the nail gun was really fun. And we ended the breakout sessions with Speak Up and Show Up with Mandy. Connecting with the NWIR Latina Council, Conexión Hispana, was also great.