When Pamela Loveless first moved to Reno, NV twenty-two years ago she clearly did not fit in with the local commercial real estate com- munity. The city’s ethic makeup was 2%-to4% African American,quite different from her California roots. That was two strikes against her,Loveless remembered thinking: she was a woman and she was Black. Withoutfurther ado, Loveless, now the owner of PKL Homes, a short-term apartmentrental operator, set about finding a way in.
The adage is the Reno was an old cowboy town and it still holds onto that
image, she says. “I purchased cowboy hats in every color and whatever I wore to
a business event I would pair it with a cowboy hat. I took something near and
dear to them and made it mine.”
It worked—at least in terms of name recognition and getting her foot in the
industry. Receiving complete acceptance, though, was a long uphill slog that
required not only imagination but also grit, backbone and determination.
There are still days when she feels she has to push back against subtle bias and
discrimination.
“It wasn’t just that I was a woman,” she remembers. “I was also Black and laterI became disabled. I do believe I had a harder time than a White woman wouldhave had in similar circumstances.”
