Starting a new job just before or during entering a worldwide pandemic can be challenging for anyone in any profession. For Justine Manaid, the director of facilities in a nonprofit housing organization, it was doubly difficult.
"I know she faces challenges almost daily, because this industry is typically not female-led,” writes Lydia Arroyo-Reynolds, a colleague at Eden Housing in the San Francisco area who nominated Manaid for a 2023 Facility Champion award. “Justine has shown great leadership qualities, and her background is her biggest asset. She sees people’s potential and she engages them so they do not see their role as just a job that pays the bills.”
Manaid started with Eden Housing in 2019, about a year before the pandemic hit, and got to work immediately streamlining contract processing; creating a capital expenses repository database; and creating a recognition system for maintenance workers and janitors. When the pandemic struck, she set up a plan for Eden Housing to procure essential items to keep a system that serves 12,000 units in the San Francisco area.
Her efforts also affected the organization’s bottom line, an essential requirement for a nonprofit.
“In the past, the department was seen as ‘the folks who spent money,’” Arroyo-Reynolds says. “By being revenue generating, that image was broken. Due to being a consistent advocacy for preventive maintenance, she is able to put in place new technology that has lasting effects on the financials of each of our properties and the company as a whole.”
During her four years at Eden Housing, Manaid has also emerged as an impactful voice in the world of facilities management. She was the only woman of color on a 17-member panel of the 2022 IFMA Operations and Benchmarking Report for North America. She regularly appears as a speaker at multiple industry conferences and created an atmosphere of safety among the employees who work for her and the residents at the properties.
The pandemic shined a spotlight on the value that facility workers bring to their buildings. Manaid hopes to ride that momentum going forward.
“The pandemic highlighted the importance of the Facilities Department, allowing us to have a seat at the table,” Arroyo-Reynolds says. “Now, the goal is to maintain that seat and ensure that our valuable insight is not only heard but sought. Justine emphasizes this in all the work she does for the department. She recognizes that facilities personnel cannot lose the momentum they have gained during these challenging times.”
