Janice Levenhagen-Seeley: Council of Outstanding Early Career Engineers - 2016

Executive Director ChickTech Portland, Oregon 

Janice Levenhagen-Seeley’s passion for women’s equality and her desire to improve the diversity and culture of the technology indus- try led her to develop ChickTech four years ago. ChickTech is a national nonprofit organization that focuses on retaining women in the technology workforce and increasing the number of women and girls pursuing technology-based careers.“When I look at Chick- Tech, it’s a reflection of what I experienced,” said Levenhagen-Seeley, referring to the struggles she had as a female in a predominately male field of endeavor. “My goal is to combat what I was feeling at different points in my career.”Levenhagen-Seeley excelled at math as a high schooler, but she wasn’t given the same opportunities as her male peers. “I did better than all the boys who were on the math team, but they were all pushed to go into a class called AP C++, and ... I didn’t even find out about it until it had already started,” she said, as a way of explaining the early challenges she faced.The challenges continued as she began working at various technology companies. “I had imposter syndrome really bad, and just never felt like I belonged. I felt so completely different,” she said.She was inspired to start the nonprofit while working as a consultant. “One of my main clients was volunteering at an event to encourage minorities to go into technology,” she said. “ at inspired me to create ChickTech. I could see the potential — how I could impact other girls and women so they wouldn’t have the experiences I had.”