Tamaka Thornton, JD

Community & Citizenship Director, Turner Construction-Seattle.

Ms. Thornton is responsible for Turner Seattle’s overall diverse business program including compliance, as well as Youth Engagement, Workforce Development -Apprenticeship project goals (Proposal thru Closeout phase), and Community Service.  Furthermore, Ms. Thornton facilitates training personnel and engaging the community and trade partners in delivering the best diversity and inclusion initiatives.

Tamaka has over 20 years’ experience within public, private, and legal sectors specializing in the construction & transportation industry working to develop, administer, and monitor community outreach and contractor-diversity, equity, inclusion programs.

Previously, she held positions at SEA International Airport, Dragados USA, Ferrovial Agroman, and Birmingham (Alabama) Shuttlesworth Airport in the capacity of MWDBE Program compliance and DEI initiatives.

Ms. Thornton has worked with project’s Construction and Procurement Departments to ensure that underrepresented/marginalized businesses were afforded an opportunity to bid and work on the projects based on their expertise and overall firm’s capabilities. She has worked on several key transit and heavy civil construction, GC/CM, Design-build, Design-bid-build construction projects focusing on diversity and inclusion initiatives in Texas, North Carolina, California, Washington(state), and Arizona. Also, she previously worked with the law firm of Gentle, Turner, Sexton & Harbison on several multi-million/billion-dollar Personal Injury/Property Class Action lawsuits.