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What truly differentiates J.S. Held is our people — world-class talent driven by a common set of core values. Together, these shared values inspire a culture of integrity, excellence, teamwork, and service.
Diana Arana has been with J.S. Held for nearly six months after joining our team through the Bracken Engineering acquisition. In only a short amount of time, Diana has made an immediate impact and has quickly become an invaluable part of our team. Based out of our Plantation, Florida office, Diana works for both our Engineering and Environmental, Health and Safety service lines. Whether she is inspecting structures for water/mold damages, developing remediation protocols, or performing building envelope assessments; Diana approaches every project with a high level of passion and tenacity.
Diana is best characterized as a joyful individual who leads by example. Although she is soft-spoken, her actions speak volumes and personify J.S. Held’s commitment to service, reliability, and always doing the right thing.
Diana was born in Palmira, Colombia, where she grew up watching her parents run their own furniture manufacturing company. She would sometimes help them on the weekends and attributes her attention to detail and appreciation for hard work to her many years of assisting them. In 2003, Diana moved to the United States with her brother, Renato, after earning her Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from ICESI University. Together, they began their careers working as building permit consultants who primarily handled municipal projects. After three years, Diana took the next step forward in her career and joined a plumbing contractor working as a project coordinator. She would later take a job working in the same capacity for an environmental contractor that offered mold and asbestos remediation services. It was during this time that she realized her passion for working with natural resources, such as water and air. She worked as a coordinator during the day and then attended classes at night to pursue her Master’s degree in Environmental Engineering. All of this hard work later paid-off when she joined Bracken Engineering as a Project Engineer, specializing in mold and water damage assessments.
A few sleepless nights and a strong dose of fate later, Diana is now using her past experiences to build upon her ability to understand building sciences, identify cause and origin of damages, distinguish the main components of indoor air quality, and to better communicate with clients.
What others may find to be gross and undesirable, Diana finds to be interesting and fun to work with. Her knowledge of mold and water damage is both renowned and highly-utilized in the warm and humid environment found in the Southeast United States. Throughout Diana’s career, she has consulted on some of the largest commercial and multi-family building losses in the Southeast, in addition to performing inspections on hundreds of single-family homes.
Working in a fast-paced industry that offers unique challenges every day, in addition to meeting lots of new people and visiting new areas are a few aspects of Diana’s job that she enjoys most. It is her passion for helping others and interacting with her team that inspires her daily.
Away from work, Diana can be found enjoying Florida’s pristine beaches, training for her next half-marathon, or whipping up some native Colombian delicacies with her family and friends.
Diana is also actively involved in her church where she serves as a bass player for the worship team. Her level of commitment to others is truly admirable and outstanding, but her mad bass guitar skills really rock!
Interested in learning more about Diana Arana? Send her an email at [email protected].