Christina Trexler brings extensive experience in building solutions to precast industry

A routine trip to the grocery store drastically changed the direction of Christina Trexler’s life.

She was living in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, attending art school after graduating high school early. With a high IQ and learning disabilities, school had never been the right place for Trexler. But art school allowed her to flourish and explore her talents.

Trexler regularly bought groceries at a store located between the charming, high-end Gold Coast and the public housing projects of Cabrini-Green.

A pregnant woman who looked to be her age was in front of her in line.

“The mom was talking to cashier about how she’s going to get more money from the government when this new kid comes,” Trexler said. “And I thought, ‘Oh, I’m in the wrong field.’”

That realization set her on a long and winding path to help people that eventually led to the National Precast Concrete Association, where she serves as the vice president of Workforce Innovation.

CHANGE OF DIRECTION

Though passionate about her art, the encounter at the grocery store showed Trexler a career designing imported granite countertops wasn’t the right future for her.

She quit art school and went to study psychology. Trexler focused on behavior and neuropsychology, trying to understand how the brain works and its impact on behavior.

Trexler quickly recognized she had a knack for reading and understanding behavior. As someone who fell through the cracks of the education system due to her learning disabilities, she felt she had a unique understanding of brains that worked differently. It motivated Trexler to help others.

BUILDING PROGRAMS

“Every job I’ve ever taken, somebody called and said they had a problem they needed solved,” Trexler said. “And I solved it.”

In addition to working on death penalty investigations at the state and federal level for many years, Trexler has worked extensively with community corrections and the mental health courts. With the closure of mental health facilities across the nation, states were left without programs to handle offenders and others dealing with mental illnesses. Trexler answered the need.

Trexler also was contacted by a nonprofit that wanted to help offenders transitioning from prison back into the community. Her volunteer work with the group quickly became a full-time job building a way to assess offenders’ psychosocial histories, personalities and what was missing from their lives.

“If they were able to be gainfully employed, then obviously they would be able to meet their basic needs, take care of their family,” Trexler said. “However, the other part was it would also increase their self-esteem. And when you increase your self-esteem, then you don’t want to hang out with people who are going to get you in trouble again.”

Trexler began the difficult task of working with employers to build a program to employ offenders. The program grew, and Trexler’s phone started ringing with calls from other states and the federal government. Success, however, was in the people Trexler saw benefitting from the program.

“One guy I can remember at a chemical company ended up being a junior vice president,” Trexler said.

JOINING NPCA

Fast-forward to a morning in 2023, when Trexler’s phone rang, and NCPA President and CEO Nick Rhoad was on the line.

“He calls and says, ‘What’s it going to take for you to leave your career?’” Trexler said.

“I said, ‘Nick, I don’t even know what you do.’ He says, ‘Precast concrete.’”

That didn’t clarify anything for Trexler.

“I said, ‘Nick, do you have criminals or something? What are you talking about?’”

“He says, ‘Listen, these members are great. But they need help on getting employees and having good employees.’”

They agreed to meet to discuss a position that didn’t exist at NPCA. Then she ignored the follow-up email for a month.

Rhoad called again, sharing his experience with the members and what he saw as the need. What was being asked of her slowly started to take shape in Trexler’s mind.

“I realized what Nick needed was a solution internally that is going to help these companies across the country solve their problem so that they can keep doing what they do for their communities,” Trexler said. “Once I realized that, then I thought, ‘OK, I see it.’ It still was a very hard decision, but I’m glad I made the decision.”

THE PLAN

Since joining the association team, Trexler has been hard at work evaluating the knowns and unknowns of the precast industry. Her research thus far has shown deficits in industry benchmarking.

“We don’t have data from a national perspective on any organizational trends from an organization level or from a talent recruitment level,” Trexler said. “We don’t know the talent lifecycle for the industry. We don’t know what society knows about precast.”

The lack of data puts the precast industry behind similar industries, particularly in preparing for a projected talent deficit in 2030 of 1.5 to 2.3 million employees. Other industries are already executing initiatives and measuring the results to narrow the talent gap. Precast, however, doesn’t have an accurate picture of its current workforce or future talent pool.

“That’s terrifying to me, because 2030 is only around the corner,” Trexler said.

Trexler also has found that the sophistication of the education, training and programming in the industry needs to evolve as does the way businesses operate. Technological advancements, competition for work and talent, and generational workforce expectations have changed the business landscape.

Trexler wants to compile information for precasters that will be readily available, try out initiatives and measure how they work.

“Let’s try this initiative for a couple months, and then let’s gather the data,” Trexler said. “Was it successful or not? And if it wasn’t, that’s OK. I like to fail fast, learn fast, pivot fast.”

By gathering national data and communicating in ways the industry never has before, Trexler intends to increase the attractiveness and professionalism of the industry. She’s actively building the infrastructure to provide data and tools to members. The next step will be gathering information from the field about real problems within the industry and building out initiatives to address those issues.

At that point, members must be willing to try out the programs and measure the result. Then Trexler can build best practices that can be utilized by all members.

“At the end of the day, this is not about me. I can put it together, but I can’t use it,” Trexler said. “Members have to use it, and if they don’t use it, then I’m not going to have any information on how to provide what they need.”

Long-term, Trexler would like to have a national study done on employee engagement or satisfaction.

Trexler wants NPCA to be a player on the national level, akin to the Manufacturing Association.

Achieving that goal will have ripple effects through the precast industry. For example, high schools and community colleges will have precast programs at their career centers. Those programs will help provide employees at all levels of the workforce.

That goal rests on members’ willingness to participate in the programs Trexler is building.

“You need to participate on our connected community, Higher Logic, and tell me your problems,” Trexler said. “And then when I post an idea or a tool or a template or a blog post about a topic, use it. Tell me how it worked. You’re paying my salary. Put me to work.”