Cariño Maldonado

Cariño Maldonado has spent 25 years in construction and over a decade in affordable housing. Today she’s Chief of Staff and EOS Integrator at Icon Builders, founder and president of the Arizona chapter of the Women’s Affordable Housing Network (AZ WAN), and a board member of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC).

In this episode of Changemakers with Katie Goar, Cariño shares how a part-time college job turned into a 25-year career, why occupied renovations require a different kind of trust than new construction, and how Icon Builders is converting a former motel in Anaheim into transitional housing for young adults aging out of foster care. She also talks about launching AZ WAN from scratch, partnering with Sleep in Heavenly Peace to build beds for kids in need, and why exposing girls to construction careers earlier could change the industry’s gender gap for good.

What You’ll Learn:

• How Cariño’s “accidental” start in construction at age 19 turned into a 25-year career
• What a Chief of Staff actually does inside a construction company
• Why occupied renovations require a unique level of trust with residents
• The story behind Icon Builders’ motel-to-housing conversion for foster-care youth in Anaheim
• How the Sleep in Heavenly Peace partnership builds beds for kids in need
• What it takes to launch a new chapter of the Women’s Affordable Housing Network (AZ WAN) from the ground up
• NAWIC’s role in exposing girls and young women to construction careers
• Why “tribal knowledge” retention matters as veteran industry leaders retire
• What the EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System) framework does for a growing company
• Why prioritization — not multitasking — is Cariño’s key to balancing multiple leadership roles