Associate Spotlight: Danny Dugger

We always love an opportunity to spotlight our Associates and the great things they are doing in our industry. Recently our Director of Maintenance, Danny Dugger, was invited to speak at not one, but three different events: the Carmel Education Foundation Skilled Trades Speakers Series, the Ben Davis High School Construction Trades class, and at TrueU’s Special Event: Constructing Excellence.

 

Danny grew up on the west side of Indianapolis, at a J.C. Hart Community, and at a young age was introduced to apartment maintenance in an unusual way. He had been causing trouble in the community where he lived, subsequently damaging property. The Maintenance Supervisor decided to give Danny a choice, he could get in trouble, or he could learn a skill by helping to fix the damage. Danny chose to learn. Little did he know that it would turn into his career.

Fast forward 30 years later, Danny now serves as our Director of Maintenance. Earlier this year he spoke to the students at Carmel High School (January 17th) and Ben Davis High School (February 9th) telling them about his story and the career opportunities; from the development stage, through construction of an apartment community, and ending with the maintenance career possibilities.

 

Danny said of the experience, “It is an amazing experience to have a class full of students hanging on each word. The interest in Multi-Family is higher than I ever imagined.” Fun fact; 2 people out of the 50 or so that I have met with laughed at my joke, “I am from the last graduating class of the 1900’s!” One of those was a teacher, who was my age.

 

On February 27th of this year, Danny was invited to speak at a special event for TrueU that focused on Leadership in the trades -- how to improve communication and overcome obstacles in our industry. He spoke specifically about the use of DiSC, a behavior assessment tool, and how you can leverage DiSC to better understand and communicate with those around you. We are so proud of all of Danny’s accomplishments and contributions to the growth of our industry!