Standing on stage at the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, accepting an Empire Builder award, Skyline High School graduate Elizabeth Ponce-Garza reflected on her Dallas ISD legacy.
With 20 years of experience in the construction industry, the founder and CEO of Picasso Contractors motivates students at Career Institutes to pursue wherever life takes them, even if it’s not a traditional path.
A certified Minority, Women, and Disadvantaged Business Enterprise, Picasso Contractors generates nearly $7 million in annual revenue. Beyond leading her firm, Ponce-Garza serves as chair of the local Regional Hispanic Contractors Association Foundation and founded the Maria Luna Awards to recognize and empower women in construction.
“I’m very passionate about paying it forward,” she said. “Somebody helped me at one point, and I’ve got to make sure that I help people in the future. Not everybody is going to fit in a cookie-cutter box. There are several ways of making a great living, so I try to let people who didn’t make it into college know that there’s still a future for them.”
After a year and a half of attempting college and deciding it wasn’t the right fit, Ponce-Garza stepped straight into the workforce. After a few years of answering phones and developing other career skills where her father worked, she borrowed $5,000 from him to open her first company, Ponce Contractors.
Though academics didn’t always come naturally, setting a clear purpose made her unstoppable through every step of her business journey. Today, she uses hard-won lessons to show students a different side of success that isn’t one-size-fits-all.
One of her core messages to students is the fast track to financial independence offered by skilled trades. Capabilities in plumbing, HVAC, or electrical work often yield immediate, high-paying opportunities that rival traditional college trajectories.
“I really understand my trade, the construction industry, and the commitment I was shown early on,” she said. “If you keep at something and learn everything, you can become an expert, and that’s what has helped me get to where I am today.”
Her company’s footprint stretches across the entire region, having completed work on roughly 210 campuses over the years through both prime contracts and subcontracts. Just this past summer, Picasso completed renovations on 52 schools, and more than half were Dallas ISD campuses.
As a member of the Regional Hispanic Construction Association, she networked her way to a strong clientele, scaling her projects from $65,000 to $900,000. That network included two future friends—an estimator and an architect—who once walked the same halls with her at Skyline High School. By 2008, her growing business brought her career full circle when Dallas ISD became one of her clients through the bond program.
“In the construction industry, they say if you know how to do business with Dallas ISD, you can do business anywhere,” she said. “The district has educated me into making sure I have all my little ducks in a row. Now, when I go to other projects, it just seems so much simpler.”