New President of Chapter of Commercial Real Estate Women Network Helps Host Annual Convention
Trina Joseph, a managing partner at Coro Realty, is president-elect of the Commercial Real Estate Women Network's Atlanta chapter. (Courtesy Trina Joseph)
By Andy Peters
CoStar News
November 15, 2022 | 8:46 A.M
Trina Joseph is putting together a commercial real estate business meeting — ideally with more than 1,200 people. If all goes well, she wants it to be a life-changing experience for those in attendance.
She's taking a turn next year as president of the Atlanta chapter of the Lawrence, Kansas-based group dedicated to the advancement of women in commercial real estate known as Commercial Real Estate Women, or CREW, and she has one big assignment on her plate: help host CREW's national convention in Atlanta next September with a focus on boosting careers.
Joseph, however, isn’t worried. "I’ll be working to raise funds and make sure we have speakers,” she told CoStar News. “I have a great team. I won’t be doing it alone."
She's come a long way from her first gig in commercial real estate: a part-time job as a tenant services coordinator for LaSalle Partners, which merged with Jones Lang Wooten in 1999 to create Jones Lang LaSalle, or JLL.
Joseph, who's now a managing partner at Coro Realty Advisors, didn't plan to enter real estate while a student at Loyola University in New Orleans, her hometown. She initially began her career as a fundraiser for Loyola. When she and her husband, Ronald, moved from New Orleans to Atlanta in 1992, she took an institutional advancement position with the Morehouse School of Medicine.
While at Morehouse, the babysitter for the Josephs' 2-year-old daughter quit. Ronald suggested Trina become a stay-at-home mom.
Providing Support
Ronald and Trina Joseph enjoy their favorite vacation spot, Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. (Courtesy Trina Joseph)
But she got stir-crazy at home, leading her to take the part-time position at LaSalle. She steadily moved up the ranks, moving to lease administration, then property management. Joseph later worked for GMH Associates, but she left when the Newtown Square, Pennsylvania-based firm went into student housing. That sector didn't interest Joseph.
Joseph started her own real estate company and worked for DLC Management Corp. before ultimately joining Coro in 2015. At Coro, she focuses on asset management, specializing in mixed-use and retail-center properties.
For most of her career, Joseph has been involved with CREW. She believes it's important for women in real estate to get advice and emotional support from other women for what can sometimes be intimidating situations.
"CREW helps women be able to stand their ground in a roomful of men," she said, a business skill that can create career opportunities. "Sometimes you’re the only woman in that room and you need to have had support from people who have had the same experience."
Joseph said she has personally experienced a lack of support at a previous employer, whom she declined to identify, who she said always replied no when Joseph repeatedly requested permission to let her join CREW, a volunteer organization.
Her male supervisor "would say, 'What benefit is there for us?' and that would be the end of it," she said.
CREW has found that women are underrepresented across the industry. According to the group's most recent study, conducted in 2020, women represent about 37% of the commercial real estate workforce. But the group found women earn 10% less than men in base compensation, 56% less in commissions and bonuses and hold only 9% of C-suite positions. The issue of gender isn't the only area of potential improvement for commercial real estate, Joseph said. She also wants to increase ethnic diversity within the ranks of CREW Atlanta, something she feels will have a positive effect on the industry as a whole. About 14% of the chapter's members are minorities.
Joseph said she knows the 2023 CREW Network Convention is going to take up a huge amount of time, with the expected crowd expected to attend at the Hyatt Regency in Atlanta. So when the show is over, don't be surprised if Joseph and her husband take a trip. They like to travel, and their favorite spot is Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. It's also where she plans to retire.
"It's my happy place," she said. "It's where we can detox."