Sometimes the professional and personal come together in interesting ways. It’s been that way for Clayton Harrison, a Quality Coordinator at Haskell’s Dallas Regional Operations Center.
One of the Haskell projects he’s worked on is the American Leadership Academy Applied Technologies, a new charter high school that opens in August in Mesa, Arizona. It brings back memories of the days he spent teaching welding and metal fabrication at a technical school in Dallas.
“It’s going to be a beautiful campus,” Harrison said. “I’ve been working on that start to finish. I can see what’s to come, the students walking the hallways.”
Harrison brought with him a variety of experience when he joined Haskell a year ago. He earned a degree in agriculture from Texas Tech University and enlisted in the Army while in college. He served 12 years as an Engineering Officer in the Texas National Guard.
In 2019, he did a tour of active duty working on the border wall with the Army Corps of Engineers.
“Coming off the fast-paced, high-stress job at the border wall, I decided I didn’t want to go back in the classroom,” Harrison said. “When I separated from the military, I started job hunting and found a quality opportunity with Haskell. It was a great transition and has allowed me to expand my knowledge of different construction areas and work throughout Haskell.”
Regional Quality Assurance Manager Michael Wittmann hired Harrison and gave him high marks for original thinking.
“He comes in with a new perspective,” Wittmann said. “He finds way to improve our processes. He’s been a great asset.”
As a Quality Coordinator, Harrison works on eight to 10 projects that take him to construction sites across the country up to three days a week. In the past year, he’s been to Virginia, Idaho, California, Nebraska and Arizona.
When he’s onsite, he works with construction teams to identify and mitigate quality issues and risks.
“We go all over. We go where we’re needed and where we can be of help,” Harrison said. “We offer new eyes and different perspective from the full-time guys. It’s easy for them to walk past it. When we show up on site, our only focus is worrying about the quality of the build and the site and delivering that to customer.”
A typical job might be monitoring concrete pours, which are done in the middle of the night. They should happen under optimum conditions. But conditions that aren’t quite right can be mitigated.
“Haskell has a vast knowledge base of lessons learned,” Harrison said. “We track the quality issues in an auditable form that we can present to the client to give them a better feel for the quality that Haskell provides.”
Harrison and his wife have two little girls and two dogs, a frisky Boston terrier and a fat French bulldog.
When he’s home, he works out most days doing powerlifting and CrossFit. That keeps him in shape for another interest – elk hunting using a bow and arrow.
That style of hunting requires a lot of patience, with hunters bringing down an elk maybe once a decade.
“I’ve been doing this for about six years,” he said, “and I’ve only killed one.”
5 Questions with Clayton Harrison
What drew you to your career?
I like the change. Every job offers new challenges and experiences.
Where is your favorite travel destination, and why?
I love the mountains. I like to disconnect and unplug.
Complete this sentence: I couldn’t make it through the week without …
Getting in a couple of good workouts, It takes my mind off of things and lets me focus on myself for a minute.
Who is your role model and how have they influenced you?
I would say my dad. Even through a cancer diagnosis, he still gets up and puts in the work every day to provide.
What does being a Haskell team member mean to you?
It means being part of a growing organization that values my work as well as myself.
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