Breaking Barriers: Halle Jones Capers
Halle Jones Capers makes herself seen and heard. That assertiveness was especially important when she entered the male-dominated engineering industry. Despite not always getting eye contact or equal attention initially, she actively engaged others in conversations.
“Sometimes throughout my career, I have situations where you’re invisible, not only as a Black woman but as a woman. … I really try and be relevant to a conversation,” she says. “There’s very much less of that today than early on.”
Jones Capers has since spent over 30 years in the field, continuously shattering glass ceilings. She was the first Black female deputy director of the division of highway operations for the Ohio Department of Transportation. Recently, she realized a long-held dream and accomplished another first: the 2020 launch of her company, Halle’s Engineering & Design, marked the first minority female-owned civil engineering firm in Akron. Her firm provides civil engineering design services in the areas of transportation, water/wastewater and site design.
In the beginning, being first was challenging. She realized early that being in a community was key to building her confidence.
“Being the only one, sometimes it can feel isolated,” she says. “But joining organizations ... and getting to work with different people, finding common interests … has always been helpful.”
As a University of Akron student, she helped found a chapter of the National Society of Black Engineers and became its first president and is still involved. Throughout her career, she’s continued to encourage students through outreach programs like Increasing Diversity in Engineering Academics at UA. At a Summa Health project site recently, she encountered a student she worked with while she was the director of the Women in Engineering Program at UA.
“It was exciting to see her in this role, sharing knowledge about the project, being confident,” Jones Capers says. “It was really rewarding.”
The first employee she hired at her firm is a young Black female UA engineering grad and transportation engineer, Amanda Kumih. She didn’t have a lot of classmates who looked like her, so having a Black female as her boss means a lot.
“It honestly felt great for her to believe in me,” Kumih says. “It gave me a lot of confidence to know she looked like me.”
Building strong relationships has helped Jones Capers get projects, including a job overseeing the progress on the $30 million Residences at the Greens townhomes in the Canton area that she got through a recommendation from another professional involved with the Minority Contractor Capital Access Program she was in.
With decades of experience and hard work behind her, Jones Capers spends most of her time learning her new role as an entrepreneur and growing her firm.
“I’m comfortable where I am and the value that I bring,” she says. “If I’m in a conversation or meeting that’s all male, I don’t feel I have to speak up to be seen and relevant. I’m seen and relevant because I’m relevant.”
Indeed, Jones Capers’ presence can be seen throughout Northeast Ohio — from bridges and roads she helped design to community leadership roles. She hopes that her groundbreaking career is paving the way for others to follow in her footsteps.
“Most of my life, I continued to be the first,” she says.
“I definitely want to help more people get out there and do what I do.”