Meet Tonda Thomson, Woodworker & Community Advocate.

This FH series introduces readers to a few of the women who make up11 percentof the construction workforce in the U.S., spotlighting stories of their careers in the field. Know someone we should feature?Email us here.

Tonda Thompson is a woodworker and general contractor in Milwaukee, but that’s just one part of her ongoing, transformative work. Thompson has a history of turning challenges big and small into opportunities for growth, for herself and her community.

After the death of her infant firstborn, she shifted her focus from a career as a runway model to advocating for better health care for Black mothers and infants.

More recently, Thompson created She Slangs Wood, a custom furniture business with the secondary goal of teaching women woodworking skills. She showcases her work and that of her students at @sheslangswood on Instagram, and encourages community involvement in her classes. She shares more about her work and life below.

Q: How did you make the leap into woodworking?

A: When my son was three, he thought he was Mickey Mouse. He always wanted to stand on this glass table and dance, and I was scared it was going to break. At the time, we didn’t have the money to buy sturdy furniture, so I decided I would learn how to make it. I watched YouTube, built the table, posted it on social media and it went viral.

COVID had just started and my videographer business was suddenly stalled, so I started making furniture for other people. Along the way, I realized what a therapeutic form of art it was building tables, and then porches, decks and fences.

When the unrest happened later that year [2020], even though I was used to being the racial justice person, I decided to let the young people march while I stayed in my garage. I ended up buying a commercial building with the money I raised selling tables.

Q: What’s the commercial building for?

A: My commercial building is called Valor Creative Collective. It houses a mixture of businesses that I created to teach skills and provide resources to the community.

My business Vogue Dreams teaches and provides video and photography services. She Slangs Wood hosts classes, teaching and providing finish and construction carpentry services. That business also sells home furnishings in the building’s retail storefront space.

Then my nonprofit, the National Coalition for Healthy Black Families, uses it for meeting spaces and providing access to resources such as other jobs and mental and physical health connections. The building has really helped me come full circle in figuring out how to put all of my businesses together and continue my mission of eliminating social determinants of health that cause infant mortality.

Q: How do you think the trades fit in with community advocacy?

A: When you teach a person how to use an impact drill, it doesn’t just give them the power to make money. It gives them a confidence like no other. When I put a drill in a woman’s hands, she’s like, “Oh my God, I could change the world.”

In terms of community, that drill also gives her the power to change perceptions. Like, you may live in a food desert, or you may live in a poverty-stricken neighborhood, but if you learn how to use this tool properly, you can change that.

Q: What’s one of your more memorable She Slangs Wood projects?

A: I got hired to build a fence, where the neighbor had also bid on the job. It created a lot of tension, because he kept coming over to tell us we weren’t doing it right. I ended up getting a group of men to come to the site with us to protect us from the backlash.

It happened that they were also good fence builders who taught us a few tricks. It ended up being one of the most beautiful fences that we’ve done yet.

I also often see the guy who we had the confrontation with at the lumberyard. He’s apologized and we’re friends now and laugh about it. So it worked itself out, and I learned a heavy lesson from that, which is to keep going and do my best, no matter who’s watching. Plus, not to get discouraged in the midst of conflict.

I could have just quit and went home. But I decided it was going to be the best fence in the neighborhood, and that’s how it ended up.

Q: What changes have you seen in the trades?

A: I went to a technical high school in the early 2000s, and when the No Child Left Behind Act passed in 2001, it took the trades out of the schools. I saw our machinery replaced by books, and they started pushing us to go to college.

But a lot of the kids didn’t have the tenacity to do that, so they ended up in places where they shouldn’t have. It has affected us Millennials heavily over the last 20 years or so. And that’s why you see the Baby Boomers retiring from the trades with nobody to take their place.

I’m trying to change that by teaching high school girls carpentry and connecting them with apprenticeships. I want to give them the confidence that they can do this, and the understanding that it’s very therapeutic to us. Why sit around and wait for a guy to do it when you can do it yourself?

Q: What changes do you hope to see with the trades in coming years?

A: Right now a lot of women are realizing they can DIY. On YouTube and TikTok, you see a lot of women doing handy stuff in the shop.

I don’t want that to be a fad. I want it to be something we can grow from, so we can keep this confidence, because it changes your neighborhood, your household, your community and the school that your children go to. That then changes the whole entire city, state, nation, everything.

Tonda Thomson Bio

Tonda Thompson spends her time woodworking, developing communities, working as a teacher and model, raising her kids and sometimes working as a politician.

She is the CEO of J.R. Creative Holdings, the parent company for She Slangs Wood Co., Valor Creative Collective and Vogue Dreams Productions. Her life’s mission is to encourage others to walk with authority in everything that they do.

Following the tragic death of her first son, Terrell, Thompson became a serial entrepreneur and community advocate. She seeks solutions to reduce social determinants of health, which negatively impact Black maternal, infant and fetal health in the U.S.

Thompson is also the founder of The National Coalition for Healthy Black Families, Inc. (NCHBF), and has created events including the HaRUNbee 5K.

Writer Karuna Eberl Bio

Karuna Eberl is a regular contributor to Family Handyman. She spent the last 25 years as a freelance journalist and filmmaker, telling stories of people, nature, travel, science and history. Eberl has won numerous awards for her writing, her Florida Keys Travel Guide and her documentary, The Guerrero Project. Follow her on Instagram @QuixoticTravelers.