Though born and raised in New York, Tricia Pinto got her hands into the Bay State’s environmental engineering scene (literally) when she arrived for a master’s program at MIT following work in the civilian arm of the Army Corps of Engineers.
Though she originally was the type for nitty-gritty field work (including a water quality study in Nepal), her 16 years at Sanborn Head has seen her climb the ladder from a soil-collecting, water-testing recent grad up to a key administrator and team manager. Currently, she is both a vice president and a member of the board of directors.
In this role, Pinto said, she wears multiple hats, primarily working with commercial real estate clients to develop strategies for getting structures up while following the regulations set in place to keep the lands and waters clean while keeping them profitable for the developer.
Pinto has also taken on mentorship of newer generations, showing them how to get the job (whichever that may be) done in a streamlined manner. In addition to her technical work, she was recently nominated and accepted to the board of Environmental Business Council New England, she is on the membership committee of CREW, the programs committee of WTS and an active member in NAIOP and the Boston Bar Association
“Sanborn Head is like a home for me,” Pinto said. “The way the firm is structured, it’s given me a lot of different opportunities. I like to pass that down.”
Kim Sousa, Sanborn Head’s vice president of marketing and business development, called Pinto “a true leader” for her “calm, yet profound insights.”
As a proper woman of FIRE, Pinto is doubly effective at burning down gender barriers through her successful work in engineering and real estate development – two of the most traditionally male-dominated industries.
This began early with the support of her parents, who, she said, never put any emphasis on her being a girl as they raised the future engineer. This allowed her to go confidently forth from the time she determined her vocation.
“I never let it be an issue,” she said. “Instead, I would think, ‘[I’ll] let my good work speak for itself.’”
A tour through the commonwealth’s recent developmental profile speaks volumes for Pinto’s reputation as an environmental consultant, as her fingerprints are all over high-profile projects such as Somerville’s Assembly Row, which turned a previously unassuming morass into one of Greater Boston’s shiniest new retail and recreation playgrounds. Pinto called the project “challenging but fun.”
Additionally, Pinto has been involved with MGM’s Springfield casino development, helping it to move along in compliance with regulations despite some overall roadblocks.
“There’s something to be said when you take an underutilized piece of land and make it part of community,” she said. “I help to make the developer’s vision become reality, and I help them do it in a way that’s safe, following regulations that are in place to maintain public safety.”
She added, “I can drive by and say, ‘Wow I contributed to that.’”
