For readers who may not know you yet, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m Doug Hague. I live in Kansas. I’m a husband and a dad to three kids—16, 14, and 12—so life stays pretty active.

I fell in love with woodworking in high school. I had a great shop class, went on to college for wood technology, and then into industry at a high-end cabinet manufacturing facility. I did just about everything on the office side—engineering, estimating, CNC programming, sales, project management, drafting.

Later, I became a professor at Pittsburg State University for nine years, teaching woodworking and helping shape the next generation. From there I joined AWI as Education Director, and now I’m finishing my sixth year as CEO.

What first drew you to woodworking?

Woodworking takes math and science and makes them practical.

Glue is sticky—not just because it is, but because of chemistry. Finishing works because of molecular bonding. You don’t necessarily study the theory in shop class, but you see the application immediately. Touch your project before it’s dry and your finger sticks.

I’m very much a hands-on learner. I like taking things that feel abstract and turning them into something real and useful.

What was the moment you realized woodworking was more than a hobby?

That really happened when I was exposed to commercial woodworking equipment and manufacturing environments.

High school shop tools are great for learning fundamentals, but when you see industry equipment—sliding table saws, CNC routers, three-phase power—you start to understand efficiency, precision, and safety at a completely different level.

That’s when it clicks that this is manufacturing. It’s a profession, not just something you do in your garage.

 

“Our standards are a baseline. If you build better than that, you’re making the industry stronger.”

 

About AWI

When someone asks, “What is AWI?” how do you explain it?

We’re a standards-writing trade association.

We develop and publish standards for commercial architectural woodwork. That’s our core. Everything else—education, networking, compliance—supports that mission.

In 2025, AWI completed ANSI recognition for all of our standards. That means they’re public consensus standards. They’re not just written by a few people in a room—they go through a formal process with public input and voting.

Why do standards matter so much to the industry?

They create a shared baseline.

Architects specify to AWI standards. Woodworkers build to them. Owners know what they’re getting. Contractors know what’s expected.

They also help people understand things they might not know to consider. Especially if you’re new to the industry, standards expose blind spots before they become costly mistakes.

Some shops say, “We build better than the standards.” How do you respond?

I say, “Thank you.”

Our standards were never meant to be the end-all, be-all. They’re accountability layers. If you build better than the standard, you’re pushing the industry forward—and that’s a good thing.

The mistake is aiming only for the baseline. Aim higher. If you miss a little, you’re still above the mark.

 

“Woodworking is a system, not a single role.”

 

The Invisible Side of Woodworking

What’s the biggest misconception people have about commercial woodworking?

Most people have no idea where commercial casework comes from.

You walk into a hospital, an airport, a school—those cabinets didn’t appear on site. They were designed, estimated, engineered, manufactured, finished, delivered, and installed by an entire team, mostly offsite.

Woodworking is one of the few construction trades that manufactures its work before it ever reaches the building.

What are the careers people don’t realize exist in this industry?

A lot of people still think woodworking means standing at a table saw all day.

But behind one cabinet is an estimator, a project manager, an engineer, a draftsman, procurement, CNC programmers, finish teams, installers.

If you mess up the estimate, you lose money before you ever touch wood. If scheduling goes wrong, the job goes sideways. It’s a coordinated effort from start to finish.

There isn’t a most important role—it’s a team.

 

“A degree doesn’t teach you everything. It gives you a stronger foundation and a faster learning curve.”

 

Workforce and Education

Is there really a talent shortage in the industry?

I think it’s real, but I also think there’s a lot of hope.

Kids like building. They’re comfortable with technology. Our industry sits right at that intersection. We use CAD, CNC, automation—you can design digitally and build physically.

The bigger issue is awareness. A lot of people simply don’t know these careers exist.

What’s your advice to young people considering woodworking as a career?

Get something beyond a high school diploma.

I don’t care if it’s a certificate, an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s, or a master’s. Education gives you a stronger foundation and a faster learning curve.

It doesn’t make you an expert—but it helps you move forward faster.

Looking ahead, what keeps you up at night about the industry?

Supply chains come and go. Materials cycle. That’s manageable.

What I think about more is whether real wood stays central in design. A lot of construction growth right now is data centers, and there’s very little woodworking in those.

So the long-term question is how we keep wood specified, valued, and understood in the built environment.