The Roanoker March/April 2017 - 36

Heather Brush
MONICA Rokicki-Guajardo
Better Building Works

Monica Rokicki-Guajardo was 49 when the Big Change hit
her six years ago. "Sustainable design has always attracted
me," she says, "but in the profession things are quite silo'ed
between the professions of engineering and even in the
design studio."
She was director of design and sustainability at the firm of Architectural Design in Roanoke at the time when "two things conspired to make me take the madcap leap into founding a business."
She wanted to know how the buildings she designed "actually
fared in the world" and she wanted to make a "gigantic impact."
She already had the certifications, but "that knowledge fell upon
deaf ears in the 'business as usual' architectural world" and so it
"was time to do a grand experiment and start a company that
would change the world." That is Better Building Works.
Her background includes an architectural degree with a second
degree in philosophy (she's married to philosopher Ivan Guajardo),
being the oldest of nine children of a "hobo/coal miner and stunt
man" mom and German dad, growing up in Chicago.
Her goal of "changing the world" is clear and "we have a ...
replicable model that can do all of the things I've always wanted
to do: help people, make more beauty, get real, verifiable results."
The company's "building-science-based approach to existing
building projects (and some new ones) has been refined over the
past five years for both residences and homes. We are getting ready
to expand into nearby Virginia markets."
The result so far: "I would not have predicted the way that my
company influences the people that I have the honor to employ
and partner with. Their insights and passion to make a difference
in the world are what carry us forward and keep me on keel."
36 | MARCH/APRIL 2017

Katie Clifton
HEATHER Brush

Community Housing Resource Center
Heather Y. Brush's Next Chapter was dramatic: "When I
moved to Roanoke 20 years ago, I was very close to being
homeless myself. I was touched by being on the receiving
end of the Salvation Army's holiday help for my babies. It
became important to me then to somehow pay back that
kindness. My changing careers [four years ago] at 43 has
changed my life for the infinite better, and the best part
is that I get to pay that forward."
She initially followed a kind of bliss in school: studying fine
art and English with a degree in human services," all intense
interests she developed over the years.
Her single mom worked "in a jail and in corrections as a drug
and alcoholism counselor, and then for Housing and Urban
Development with low-income clients who needed housing
assistance." She learned from the example. Her mom "always
encouraged my love of being an artist and writer, but instilled
in me the need to be my own woman and have a career I could
survive on. I didn't always pay heed to that."
She tried different paths, journalism among them. "I loved
the writing, but hated the business side of it. It wasn't in my
heart to sell the sad news we read every day, and newspapers
don't just sell fluff." She wrote for magazines, as well as Book
Page. She was a journalist for 20 years and even "ran my own
business when my kids were little, book editing and reviewing."
Ultimately, writing wasn't going to work and "I found myself
applying for jobs in human services again and again. When I got
this position [housing coordinator at the Community Housing
Resource Center, a program of Council of Community Services]
four years ago, I decided to improve my worth to my clients
and employers and went back to school for my human services
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