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Amy James Neel has been a carpenter for 22 years and a lead foreman for 12.聽 With her guidance, hundreds of regional construction industry employers 鈥� including more than 80 in the past year alone 鈥� have hired pre-apprenticeship graduates from Oregon Tradeswomen Inc. who were trained to meet industry standards by Neel.

As a job developer and construction manager for OTI, she matches each employer’s need with appropriately qualified women who have completed both a training program and an evaluation for industry readiness. The success rate of her placement is based on her methods of instruction designed to prepare students for 鈥渞eal world鈥� work situations. She recently managed a group of students and tradeswomen volunteers to build OTI’s new office space in the LEED gold-rated Heritage Building on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

In the past year, under Neel’s leadership, OTI worked with 14 different community nonprofit organizations. OTI provided more than 6,300 hours of labor by students and instructors to build community projects and, at the same time, train future tradeswomen for the construction industry.

Before joining OTI, Neel owned Leftbank Construction, an all-woman company. With the help of OTI graduates, she used locally sourced and green building materials to complete the Garfield Studios project. The historic building remodel became an important link in the development efforts along MLK Jr. Boulevard.

In her personal time, she serves on the advisory board for Gladys Bikes, a woman-focused, full-service bicycle repair and sales shop in Northeast Portland.