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Age: 37
President, Enginuity Engineering + Management
Since Sahara Williams started her own engineering firm five years ago, she’s delivered on a number of high-profile projects. Along the way, Williams has been involved in a number of community and industry organizations.
Enginuity Engineering + Management has provided engineering services for the hospital parking garage and ambulatory care building for Ezkenazi Health, and for nine Indianapolis Public Schools projects.
Williams also worked on the Ground Transportation Center for the new Indianapolis International Airport terminal when she was with TLF Inc., calling the project a career highlight.
In engineering, “you really get to be involved in the projects from a thinking point of view,” taking designs and figuring out how to make them work, she said, and “makes it safe for you to go into.”
Enginuity Engineering also has become a partner with IPS. She has spoken with student groups about careers and participated in a student entrepreneurial mentoring program.
In 2011, she lost a bid for the City-County Council, running as a Republican in a district that was nearly 90 percent Democrat.
“I never really understood until I ran for office how the system works, how all the layers work, so it was really eye-opening from that perspective,” she said.
Her original career plan was to be a veterinarian, but she transferred from Tuskegee University to North Carolina A&T State University to study engineering, then continued to Purdue University for a master’s degree in civil engineering.
She shares her home with two “four-legged children,” as she calls her dogs, and keeps two horses—down from seven—and two barn cats.
In 2005, she founded and funded Desert Moon Youth Equestrian Services, which gave inner-city children opportunities to ride horses and consider equine careers. Although the not-for-profit is no longer active due to funding, she still volunteers with her horses for occasional events.•
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