Women in Construction 2026 Profile: Karime Grajales-Patton

Observing for the minimum, may be required for Chapter 27 of the Madison General Ordinances when deciding if a building is safe enough to occupy, but if you've ever met City of Madison Building Inspection Code Enforcement Officer Karime Grajales-Patton, minimum doesn't come to mind—she goes the extra. 

"My main role is to identify safety, hazardous, or problems related to maintenance in existing buildings," Grajales-Patton said.  

Speaking code in construction is a whole other language, one Grajales-Patton loves to do when she visits buildings on site when working with property owners or contractors. 

"If I'm doing an exterior inspection, I arrive to the property. I have the protocol to follow. I observe everything from the roof level to the ground,” Grajales-Patton said. "I observe the roof system, the guardrail system, walls, exterior walls, stairs, windows, foundation walls.” 

If she finds problems or code violations, she moves forward with an official notice. It's all part of her day-to-day at the City of Madison, but it's a career she's always wanted, as long as she can remember growing up in Mexico.  

"I have always liked buildings," Grajales-Patton said. "Since I was a kid, I knew I wanted to be an architect or something related pretty much since I was in high school.”  

She continued her love for buildings into college with an impressive academic journey earning multiple degrees in Mexico which includes architecture and a Master's in Science in Construction Management in Tec de Monterrey and then a PhD in City, Territory and Sustainability for the University of Guadalajara. 

"One of my professors used to say, observe the building, the building will speak and you have to listen. If you are not listening, then that means you're not observing," Grajales-Patton said.  

Listening has been a huge part of her growth in her career, but now she's connecting different worlds in the industry, and then even further, in different cultures and languages.  

"I'm always learning," Grajales-Patton said. "But being a bilingual inspector has given me the opportunity pretty much, help an area where you can see people who don't know about construction, and especially maybe if they do not speak English or English isn't their first language.” 

Learning was her introduction to the built environment, but soon enough, she began teaching and became a college professor for the School of Architecture, worked in consulting related to codes and regulations for people with disabilities, did some research about accessibility which included working in some parts of Europe and Mexico. Multiple countries, multiple languages, all of it makes Grajales-Patton even more valuable as she applies them to another type of language: "construction.” 

"Being a bilingual inspector, it allows me to connect different worlds,” Grajales-Patton said. "One thing is my background in construction, architect, code enforcement, but the opportunity I have is to understand two languages, put them together in the same field, and sometimes being able to coordinate definitions and terminology, you can't directly translate them. I believe it’s added value... Sometimes one thing is speaking in Spanish, Italian, English, and another story, is speaking construction.”  

Speaking three languages isn't easy, and neither has been being a woman in construction over the years, but Grajales-Patton wouldn't want it any other way. 

"Being a woman in construction, we're always questioned and challenged, but we come stronger. There is no other way," Grajales-Patton said. "So, with that, we are little by little, in different cultures, gaining more and more a stronger presence in the construction industry.” 

Grajales-Patton said the built environment has so many opportunities for women. 

"Construction isn't just the construction site, there's so much more," Grajales-Patton said. "There are opportunities in planning, urban design, IT systems that go through the buildings, code enforcement, understanding local regulations, and then putting those regulations into practice in the city, the built environment. We're making a strong position. I believe we can do more.”  

More, extra, positive, it's everything Grajales-Patton is in the best way.  

"Being bilingual comes with a responsibility, the fact that I come from a different cultural background, comes with a huge responsibility," Grajales-Patton said. "Not only being a woman, but I believe my position as a woman, in building, in the construction business, also being from a different culture, comes with big challenges and also with great opportunities." 

The extra experience, passion for the industry, devotion to doing better every day is so inspiring with how she connects all of the different cultures, people and worlds in her day to day--- which happens to be anything but the minimum. 

Watch the video highlight on the City's social media platforms.