STEM Like a Girl is honored to have some pretty impressive women leading our program. As a nonprofit organization, our board members volunteer their time and skills to shape and grow STEM Like a Girl into an organization that has served almost 200 girls in less than 2 years. This week’s Wednesday’s Women in STEM post features our Board of Directors so you can get to know them a little better.
Sarah Foster, Founder and President
While leading a hands-on engineering project in her son’s elementary school, Sarah noticed less girls raising their hands or jumping into the activities than the boys. She was surprised to see a gender gap at such a young age and decided she needed to do something to change this! Sarah founded STEM Like a Girl in 2017 with the goal to introduce young girls to exciting, fun, and rewarding activities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). An East Coast native, Sarah has an undergraduate degree in chemical engineering from Bucknell University and a masters in biomedical engineering from Boston University. She worked as a Research and Development Engineer in the biotech field before taking on her biggest experiment in 2011, becoming a mom! She quickly learned there is no scientific method or protocol for raising two energetic boys! While not currently using her engineering expertise in a traditional sense, Sarah is passionate about educating youth, specifically girls, and their families in STEM activities and hopes to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers. She has served on the board of directors for Girls on the Run Portland Metro and currently works with the Portland PTA to increase STEM programming in public elementary schools. Sarah lives in Portland, OR with her husband and two young boys and loves being outside enjoying the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Amy Chamberlain-Torres
Amy is an executive in the life sciences industry, mother of a busy toddler, Portland native, and travel enthusiast. Amy studied Biology at the University of Denver and holds an MBA from the Daniels College of Business. She found her passion for science through childhood programs that supported STEM learning and by doing science experiments with her parents. Amy is thrilled to serve as a Board Member for STEM Like a Girl to help fulfill the mission of empowering girls to develop their STEM identity by providing early exposure, mentorship, and parent engagement. She believes we should all continually ask ourselves, ‘what do I want to be when I grow up?’
Courtney Davis
Courtney has wanted to design bridges since she was a little girl. She was inspired by Portland’s beautiful skyline and is now working her dream job as a bridge engineer for KPFF. Courtney received her undergraduate and masters in Civil Engineering from Washington State University. Go Cougs! During her career, she has had the privilege of working on some awesome projects like the new Panama Canal and the longest cable ferry in the world! Courtney also worked in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to protect the city from future hurricanes. When she is not designing steel and concrete structures at work, she enjoys visiting classrooms, building popsicle stick bridges and gummy bear domes. Courtney is excited to join STEM Like a Girl to inspire the next generation of problem solvers!
Janel Hull
Janel Hull is a STEM enthusiast passionate about making STEM careers inclusive. Janel studied biology at Lewis and Clark College. She spent the majority of her science career as a field biologist hiking volcanoes, mapping watersheds, and studying insects. When working on research projects in Hawaii, she would helicopter into 10-day field trips in the wilderness with her all-male field team and supervisor. Her experiences in male-dominated STEM fields sparked her desire to find a diverse and inclusive community. After transitioning from research, she worked for a science-based nonprofit running equitable community science programs. She now works as the Program Manager for ChickTech Portland, managing all ChickTech Portland programs including Middle School programs, High School Programs, Career Events, the ACT-W Conference, and the launch of ChickTech: College. She supervises the volunteer Leadership Team to execute all programs with oversight and support. She also manages partnerships and sponsorships with over hundreds of partners in Portland. Janel is proud to be a part of the STEM Like a Girl community and Board of Directors.
Molly Lebowitz
Molly is a Management Consultant in Portland, OR and has an Engineering degree from Cornell University. She has worked as an Engineer, Manager, and Business Analyst at companies large and small. While managing a team at Play-Well TEKnologies in Seattle WA, Molly created the first LEGO engineering curriculum exclusively for girls, now offered nationally. She is extremely passionate about the mission of STEM like a Girl, because she knows first-hand what it feels like to be a girl who craves more STEM in her life from a young age. Molly believes that it is our job as technical professionals (both men and women) to empower girls in STEM by providing role models, opportunities, and accessible experiences so that we can maximize the talent in our technical pipeline. Our future depends on our girls! Molly lives in North Portland with her partner and young son and loves exploring the Pacific Northwest by foot, by bike and by Datsun.
Stephanie McGregor
Stephanie is an Instrumentation and Controls engineer for Jacobs in Portland. She studied bioengineering at Oregon State University while also competing for the Oregon State gymnastics team. She is very excited to join STEM Like a Girl! Stephanie coached young gymnasts in the past and is looking forward to working with that age group again. She has found her engineering career to be very rewarding and wants to encourage more young girls to pursue paths involving math and science. In her free time, Stephanie enjoys gardening, running, and hiking with her husband.
Stephanie is a Program Manager on the Automation Deployment Engineering team at Amazon. She graduated from Lake Superior State University with her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and minors in robotics and mathematics. Stephanie has previously held roles in the aviation, healthcare, consumer goods, and robotics integration fields. The diverse possibilities that engineering has offered has allowed her endless opportunities and challenges both inside and out of work. She is extremely excited to join STEM Like a Girl and help bring those fun and challenging opportunities to a new generation of girls! In her free time, Stephanie enjoys hiking, reading and experimenting in the kitchen.
Michelle Prentice
Michelle is a CPA who spent 7 years working in public accounting before the birth of her first son. She has spent the last few years as the Corporate Accounting Manager for a barre3. Before joining STEM Like a Girl, Michelle spent 5 years on the Board of Directors for Girls on the Run Portland Metro. She loves working with organizations that empower young girls and gives them the opportunity to thrive in areas she thoroughly enjoys, especially math! A graduate of the University of Oregon, she enjoys watching college sports, well sports of any kind, and enjoying the outdoors with her husband and two young sons. Michelle is thrilled to help build the STEM Like a Girl organization and help bring fun, educational activities to young girls and parents alike!