Meet Our Team
Here’s a glimpse of our dedicated team and the expertise they bring to the table.
Penny Erickson
Owner & Field Operations Lead
Penny has a genuine passion for building things and for helping crews reach their peak performance day in and day out. Growing up in North Dakota and Minnesota, she developed both a strong work ethic and a love of the outdoors that still shapes how she approaches her work. As Field Operations Lead, she keeps projects running smoothly in the field — prioritizing homeowner needs, guiding the crew through each step of the work, and upholding high standards for craftsmanship and communication. Her standout talent is knowing exactly what needs to get done and helping people get there, and she’s committed to delivering the same quality on every job that she’d expect in her own home. Outside of work, Penny loves the outdoors, from fishing, hunting, and snowmobiling to water sports and team sports.
Sarah Baso
Owner & Business Operations Lead
Sarah brings a wide-ranging background to Blackrock, with experience spanning contract law, nonprofit leadership, homemaking, and entrepreneurship in sewing and design. Her own challenges as a homeowner sparked a passion for exterior construction and water mitigation — and a particular focus on helping homeowners understand insurance claims and storm damage. Sarah manages Blackrock’s operational infrastructure while developing educational resources that help homeowners navigate real estate, insurance, and contractor relationships with confidence. She also digs into the details of building code and enjoys the problem-solving side of the work — researching and engineering thoughtful solutions to the unique challenges that come with restoring and repairing 100-year-old houses. Outside of work, Sarah enjoys spending time with family, doing crossword puzzles, listening to audiobooks, and running at Elm Creek Park.
Cindy Litwitz
Owner
Cindy founded Blackrock Construction on a foundation of integrity, transparency, fairness, and accountability — values that guide every project the company takes on. Cindy oversees project details with meticulous care and serves as the liaison between homeowners and insurance claims offices, advocating to make sure damage is fully covered and properties are properly restored. She draws on a professional background in legal practice and financial planning, and currently works in risk mitigation at a financial services firm. Outside of work, Cindy is an adventurer at heart — she enjoys kayaking, scuba diving, and motorcycling, with favorite destinations including the Boundary Waters, the Black Hills, and underwater spots wherever she can find them.
Kayla Hoem
Project & Customer Experience Coordinator
Kayla is an intercultural design and marketing professional who brings a creative, people-centered approach to her work at Blackrock. She spent nearly four years leading marketing at Revival House, a Twin Cities interior design and kitchen-and-bath firm, where she managed brand and graphic design, redesigned and optimized the company website, produced photo and video content, and built digital marketing strategy largely as a self-directed team of one. Her earlier career includes design and marketing for Dura Supreme Cabinetry and communications work for several organizations, giving her a strong grounding in branding, content creation, and creative problem-solving within the home and design industry. She also spent several years living and working in Seville, Spain, in cross-cultural communications and mission work, and has taught Spanish to students of all ages. At Blackrock, Kayla focuses on the client experience and the operations that support it — nurturing relationships with past and current clients, building processes that bring consistency and efficiency to how projects run, coordinating vendor relationships, and keeping the company’s branding and marketing polished and cohesive. She’s drawn to Blackrock’s commitment to doing work that has a positive impact on its clients, its team, and the community, and to a business built on long-term sustainability and a strong team dynamic. A fluent Spanish speaker shaped by her years abroad, Kayla is also a devoted lover of cats and plants.
Maria Emilia Borja ("M")
Carpenter
M is a multi-lingual (English, Spanish, Italian and French) carpenter and artist who brings craftsmanship and a maker’s eye to every project at Blackrock. Originally from Quito, Ecuador, she has built her career at the intersection of construction and creative work — framing, fabrication, and fine carpentry on one hand, and large-scale public art on the other. Her hands-on experience includes carpentry work with construction firms in Virginia and a graduate wood shop assistantship, and she holds a BA in Sociology from William & Mary and a carpentry diploma from Cape Fear Community College. At Blackrock, M applies that precision and problem-solving to her work as a carpenter, delivering the kind of quality workmanship homeowners can count on. When she isn’t on a job site, M is designing and painting murals — her work has appeared in schools, breweries, and community spaces across the country — and she is currently pursuing her Master of Fine Arts in Visual Studies at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. You can see her artwork at maria-emilia.com.
Ashley Brunner
Operations Partner
Ashley brings more than a decade of operations, systems, and process-improvement experience to Blackrock. Her career spans business systems analysis, technical project management, and operations leadership across organizations including Best Buy, the University of Minnesota, HousingLink, and Prime Therapeutics, along with her current work helping small business owners streamline their operations. A Six Sigma practitioner with a background in strategic planning, workflow optimization, and data analysis, she has a proven knack for finding bottlenecks and turning messy, manual processes into systems that simply work. At Blackrock, Ashley supports the operations side of the business — managing customer billing, leading financial analysis and reporting, and building and troubleshooting the internal workflows that keep projects running smoothly for homeowners and crew alike. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Minnesota and studied abroad in Montpellier, France. Outside of work, Ashley enjoys reading and listening to audiobooks, working through puzzles, and traveling.