A Supreme Partner

Kristyn Newbern watched with pride as her 7-year-old son Luke stepped onto the event podium, picked up a gold shovel and joined in the ceremonial groundbreaking for the new SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital.

Standing directly behind Luke was Dr. Andrew Fiore, the renowned cardiac surgeon who performed five life-saving surgeries on Luke after he was born with congenital heart disease. Six other former Glennon patients—each accompanied by a hand-picked caregiver—joined Luke on stage, illuminating the hospital’s healing mission for the hundreds of guests gathered to celebrate. 

Kristyn Newbern's son Luke joining in the SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital groundbreaking.

As she witnessed the scene unfold, Newbern couldn’t help but feel intense gratitude toward the countless Glennon caregivers who are directly responsible for her son’s current life as a healthy, happy boy.

At the same time, she experienced the satisfaction of knowing she helped McCarthy secure the opportunity to build the new 14-story pediatric academic hospital in the city of St. Louis.

Newbern started her McCarthy career in 2021, bringing her engineering education and experience in oil & gas, civil engineering and construction management to the team. She credits McCarthy Vice President of Business Development Erin Valentine—a long-time industry colleague and mentor—for recognizing Newbern’s ambition and connecting her to the opportunity. “I was excited to engage in the entire life cycle of projects—creating and refining opportunities to generate the best outcomes for our team and our clients,” she says. “That’s where my real passion lies.” 

As project development director, Newbern cultivates enduring client relationships—long before an RFP is issued. “It involves a deep focus on fewer pursuits, but with the potential of a much bigger impact,” she says. 

Newbern engages with clients to develop a customized program of services that are attuned to their organizations, goals and aspirations. “Instead of presenting a client with an overwhelming menu of à-la-carte specialty services and self-perform options, we present a turnkey package with McCarthy responsible for the scope of the project that generates the best outcomes for our clients,” she explains. “We act as one company and one team, working together to do what we do best.”

She likens the approach to a customer visiting a pizzeria. “A key concept to project development is the Supreme Pizza model. Ordering a specialty pizza at your favorite pizza place makes way more sense—and is more economical—than ordering a basic cheese pizza with eight random toppings,” she explains.

The strategy proved effective when SSM Health selected McCarthy for a progressive design-build delivery model in the construction of its new children’s hospital. “We saw SSM's unique needs and goals on this project and knew the best solution was our approach to progressive design-build. We built our team with experts from several of our disciplines as part of the overall project leadership,” she says.

McCarthy Partners working on the SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital project include(from left to right): Chris Chappel, Director of Design Integration; Matt Sauer, Project Director; Kristyn Newbern, Project Development Director; and Gwen Arenberg, Project Manager.

Newbern also leveraged her involvement on the Cardinal Glennon Development Board and Patient Family Advisory Council to ensure that McCarthy’s project approach reflected the organization’s overall mission and commitment to patient care. “Glennon’s mission is at the heart of McCarthy’s everyday decisions on the project,” she says. “That’s incredibly important to me as a member of the team and, more importantly, a Glennon mom.”

Engineering a Career Path

Newbern grew up in west St. Louis County, about a mile from McCarthy’s current headquarters.

Excelling in math and science as a child, she attended Missouri University of Science and Technology in Rolla, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering management with an emphasis in mechanical engineering.

She gained hands-on engineering experience while completing college internships at a general contractor, a soap manufacturer and Anheuser-Busch. 

After graduation, ExxonMobil came calling and offered Newbern an opportunity to join the company as an industrial sales engineer in Washington, DC. “I learned how to evaluate all sorts of different industrial processes and visited chemical plants, paper mills and everything in between,” she says. 

While Newbern enjoyed the experience, she soon realized her passion was in the design and construction world and decided to move back to St. Louis and sign on as production manager at Access Engineering, a local civil engineering firm. “I went from working for one of the world's largest employers to one of the smallest,” she recalls, “but I gained a lot of knowledge about managing a business through labor forecasting, negotiating contracts on jobs, working with strategic prime partners and owners, and developing a network in St. Louis.”

At night, she also completed a master’s degree in engineering management at Missouri S&T. 

In 2017, Newbern joined S. M. Wilson & Co., a St. Louis-based general contractor, as business development manager, then promoted to client development director. Her focus was on expanding the company’s K-12 practice after Missouri state legislation opened the door to alternative delivery methods for public entities across the state.

She views her current role at McCarthy as an ideal opportunity to continue her lifelong quest to improve processes.

In 2022, Kristyn Newbern moderated a panel of McCarthy partners on the benefits of representing all project lifecycle phases in a pursuit process. Pictured are (from left to right): Nebraska Market Leader Kris Montgomery; Preconstruction Director Michael Kloster; and Senior Vice President Ryan Molen.