About Us

Evelyn Pacheco made history as Nevada’s first Black Female and Black Women Veteran to be licensed as a Plumber. I am a Army Veteran, Mother,

and Grandmother.

While working at Fitzgerald Casino in the Engineering Department a co-worker told me about a

Union Apprenticeship Training Program with the Plumbers, Pipefitters & HVAC UA Local Union

525. I applied and after five years of working as an Apprentice while taking care of my family. I

made history as Nevada’s first licensed Black female and Black Veteran Women plumber.

Letting Women know that it does not matter how hard your life is or was, you can still make

something of your life. I leveraged my experience to help all Women through “Nevada Women

In Trades”, a non-profit organization formed specifically to increase the number of Women in

Trades.

Nevada Women In Trades (NVWIT) has created a pipeline for Women seeking a career in the

blue-collar trades. Our Pipeline Comprehensive Course (PCC) is paving the way for Women to

secure apprenticeships, on-the-job training, and job professionals in the trades. Pipeline

Comprehensive Course (PCC) offers a way for Women to enhance skills and ability to perform on apprenticeship exams. Pipeline program is one way of assuring women an equal opportunity to perform well on the trades exams and interviews that have historically been male dominated.

Currently, NVWIT Pipeline Comprehensive Course (PCC) is the only job training program for

Women who have the desire to enter a trade apprenticeship, need additional training and

preparation opportunities prior to completing a trade apprenticeship application. The NVWIT

Team prepares Women who have completed it's 190+ hour NVWIT (PCC) with math, science,

safety readiness, sexual harassment class, field trips to trade facilities, and test taking skills

required to assist with passing trade apprenticeship exams and give them a competitive edge in

securing a seat in a coveted trade apprenticeship of their choice. Since 2019 we have gotten 5

women into 5 different Union trades and 2 of the Women have Journeyed out of their trade, CDL

license, Culinary Union, and Flagger.

January 28,2020 marked the first-ever graduation ceremony for Nevada Women In Trades. NLV

Council Woman Pamela Goynes-Brown was the keynote speaker and presented the graduates

with their certificates at the ceremony that was held at NLV City Hall. December 17,2020

marked the first online class and our 2nd Graduation with our keynote speaker Senator Scott

Hammond. We have had our 3rd, 4th, 6th , and 8th graduation at the Clark County building on

April 1st and September 2nd of 2021, September 14th of 2022 and our keynote speaker was Clark

County Commissioner William McCurdy .

NVWIT Pipeline Comprehensive Program (PCC) initiatives increase career opportunities in the

construction industry for Low-Income, Re-Entry, Ex-Prisoners, Veterans, Minority group, Aging

out and Disenfranchised Women. On September 20, 2024 and 2025, we had our 4th and 5th

National Alliance of Women In Trades Summit at NLV CSN Cheyenne Campus bring awareness

to women in nontraditional careers. # When you support Nevada Women In Trades and Women veterans you support working women everywhere!

Sincerely,

Evelyn Pacheco

I am the son of Cuban immigrants; I grew up in a typical immigrant home. My family fixed most

things and threw away little. My grandfather would have been an engineer had family tragedy

not intervened. Yet he never lost his interest in learning how things worked and in working to

make them better. I was inspired by the many hours I spent watching him invent and create

things from nothing. My father fixed most everything himself. On the rare occasion that we

hired a repairman, I watched, intent to learn as much as I could.

At my fundamental core, I am a serial tinkerer. I believe everything can be improved; my father,

a straight thinker, has never shared my view. Childhood was a challenge because I saw the toys

that he worked so hard to buy me, as a lesson that needed disassembly. Disassembling and

reassembling my toys, to me, was playing. I have developed into an outside the box problem

solver, adapting my skills from mechanical to practical.

My parents never stopped me from living the American experience. Even though I was raised

Catholic, I was allowed to go with my friends to their religious activities. I experienced the

Hebrew, Baptist, Methodist, and Lutheran, schools. It was the same with sports. I played

baseball, football, and soccer, from elementary school through high school.

Playing sports as a youth was a wonderful experience. I played for championship teams, as well

as last place teams. I've carried a team, and a team has carried me. Learning how to win and

lose with the same humility, is a valuable life lesson.

After High School, I worked a variety of different jobs, construction, warehouse work, retail,

upholstery, tow trucks, and tractor trailer. I was once licensed to drive anything from two

wheels to 18 wheels, and armored track vehicles.

I am proud to have served in the U.S. Army as a Field Artillery Forward Observer. I learned the

strategies of battle, from the command center to the foxhole. I am grateful to have been put in

a position, to earn an Army Achievement Medal. I was recalled to active duty, in support of

Operation Desert Storm, and that gave me the opportunity to earn a second Honorable

Discharge, and a National Defense Service Medal. It also gave me the experience of going to the

airport with family and loved ones, saying goodbye, and getting on an airplane alone,

wondering if I would come back. Serving in the Army was an experience that changed my life

perspective forever.

The Soldiers Creed is forever in my soul:

 I am an American Soldier.

 I will always place the mission first.

 I will never accept defeat. I will never quit.

 I will never leave a fallen comrade.

 I am an expert, and I am a professional.

After serving in the Army, I went to Tech School and ended up working for the engineering

department of the oldest movie set lighting manufacturer in Hollywood. Among other

responsibilities, I restored antique products. Through that work, I was educated in the history of

theatrical lighting, from DC to AC. I built the fourteen-brand new carbon-arc-lamps (from spare

parts) that were used in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. The company had not been able to make a

brand-new functioning arc-lamp over in twenty-five years.

Because of my ability to repair any lighting system, I was recruited by the City of Santa Monica

as a Junior Electrician/Lighting specialist. The oldest street lighting in Santa Monica was

installed over 100 years ago, 5000 Volts AC, 6.6 amps, series to direct ground. Later, I went to

work at Los Angeles Air Force Base as a Maintenance Electrician. While working at the Air Force

Base, I bootstrapped my own electrical contracting business, which I operated for six years.

When I decided to move to Las Vegas, I closed my business and was able to join the

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 357, in Las Vegas. Without a formal

electrical apprenticeship, I passed an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers District

Nine Journeyman Wireman Certification Test and became a member of IBEW Local #357, as a

Journeyman Wireman. It was the first time in my life that I was accepted into a labor union, and

I continue to be a member in good standing.

Las Vegas has been very good to me. I met my wife, Sherry in Las Vegas, we have been married

for 13 years. Sherry studied accounting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. An Accountant

and an Electrician make a very well-balanced relationship. Sherry is the one who always

encouraged me not to quit on my first patent filing.

I served on the Nevada Patriot Guard from 2011 to 2015, providing an Honor Guard for the

funerals of Nevada Servicemembers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

​I ran for Nevada State Assembly in 2016, there was an opportunity, and I accepted the

challenge. Even though I lost, the experience, knowledge, and contacts I gained are

immeasurable, and I continue to benefit from the many skills I gained.

I helped charter the Veterans Family Advisory Council, at the Las Vegas Veterans Hospital, and

served as a member, for 2.5 years.

I have been a lifetime blood donor, with 185 donations.

I serve as an American Legion Department of Nevada Congressional Liaison for the National

Legislative Council, and I am a past Department of Nevada Legislative Chair. I serve on the

American Legion National By-Laws, and Resolution Committees. I also volunteer as a Nevada

Veterans Advocate, for the Nevada Department of Veteran Services.

I hold two U.S. patents, and one Canadian patent, and I am the listed inventor on Sherry's two

patents in Taiwan, and one patent in China. We founded a Nevada LLC, and bootstrapped a

start-up, to launch a new niche product, which is currently listed on amazon.

Energy needs resistance to flow. I believe that if we are not getting resistance, it is because we

are not moving forward, so I am always looking for the next challenge. I like the analogy of

jeeping; the road is not always straight; sometimes, it seems that I am not traveling in the right

direction; sometimes, there is no road, or there's a boulder in the road, and I need figure how

to move forward, because if I continue moving in a forward direction, I will get to the end of the

road, and then I go find the next road.

My life experience gives me the ability to see the world through the perspective of a person

who has experienced being:

 Latino/First Generation American.

 Veteran/Service-Disabled Veteran.

 Gainfully employed and chronically unemployed.

 Skilled and un-Skilled Labor.

 Union and non-Union.

 Labor and Management.

 Business Owner/Founder/Entrepreneur.

 Small Entity International Patent Holder.

 Democrat, Republican, and non-Partisan.

My diverse life experiences give me an encompassing level of empathy, understanding, and

wisdom.