Dover’s Alma Pickle knows a little something about pulverizing glass ceilings.

She’s the president of Advanced Workzone Services, which provides safety personnel and equipment in the male-dominated road construction industry, a company she’s shepherded for more than13 years.

In February, she was elected the first female president of the Association of Oklahoma General Contractors, a trade group for road, bridge and other transportation contractors and service providers, where she leads an all-male board of directors.

Even so, no one was more surprised than Pickle when she was named this month to the 2019 list of Fifty Making a Difference, the Journal Record’s annual list of female business and community leaders.

“I’m definitely proud of it and so honored, but it’s so very humbling at the same time,” Pickle told the Times and Free Press.

Along with the other honorees, Pickle will be recognized at a banquet in October at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, where a Woman of the Year will be announced.

She is among a group of honorees from across the state that includes leaders in health care, law, banking, nonprofits, education and more, who were described by Journal Record Editor Russell Ray as “an exceptional class of women making a tremendous difference in Oklahoma.”

Her success is all the more remarkable considering Pickle had no plans to pursue a career in either construction or business leadership.

With an accounting background, she started as a temporary receptionist at a traffic safety company more than 20 years ago.

Gradually, she worked her way up to a senior management position.

Launched in 2005, her current company has offices in Muskogee, Tulsa and Oklahoma City and serves as a subcontractor for state, county and federal road projects across the state, supplying safety personnel and those familiar orange cones and barrels, along with other safety equipment.

A graduate of Northeastern State University and a citizen of the Choctaw Nation, Pickle also is a member of the National Association of Women in Construction.

In an interview with the Journal Record after her election as president of the state construction association, Pickle said she sees her role as building “a leadership pipeline,” not just for women in the construction industry, but for any contractor.

She moved to Dover from Muskogee and is married to Dover native Charlie Pickle and they have three children: Andy, 31, who lives in Oologah with wife Whitney; Aryn, 28, who lives in Oklahoma City, and Jesi, a sixth grader at Hennessey Public Schools.