The Daily Journal of Commerce held its 12th annual Women of Vision event on Thursday, and hundreds of people – we counted 380 – showed up to celebrate 48 honorees. Attendees mingled, dined, and saw 48 women leaders in construction, engineering, real estate, and related industries receive awards during the evening gathering at the Sentinel hotel in Portland’s West End. Check out these festive moments.

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Now in its 12th year, Women of Vision is an event and publication that recognizes the women leading the construction, architecture, engineering, real estate and supportive professional services industries. The program aims to bring people together, celebrate, tell stories, learn, network and illustrate a clear path to success for the next generation of leaders.

In short, there are a lot of attributes that can be gleaned by meeting the successful women inside these pages.

What started as a small mid-day panel discussion with about 25 people in attendance has grown to an annual program where we’ve recognized more than 500 women leaders, had thousands of people attend our live event and brought in speakers from around the world to share advice.

Our hope is that by reading these powerful stories on the pages in this special section, you’ll be inspired to reach out to congratulate the honorees and make a connection.

We’re honoring 48 women within these pages. To the honorees: congratulations on your Women of Vision award. One of our favorite parts of the year at the 91ĘÓƵ is to read through the nominations and learn about each of you. Also to the honorees: You are true champions. You are moms, wives, co-workers, company owners, pioneers and change agents. And many of you did it all while being CEOs and CFOs of your own families, the head of IT for your children who are living in a digital world and a trusted psychologist for loved-ones who never experienced days like we’ve had in a post-pandemic world. And you did it all while excelling in your careers and forging new pathways for women in a male-dominated industry.

We congratulate this year’s Women of Vision honorees and celebrate all they’ve done, not only for their companies but for the industry as a whole and what they’re also doing for the future of the AEC industries.

This is a powerful, driven and inspiring class made up of leaders not only doing great work in their professions, but in the communities they serve.

Congratulations to this year’s pioneering Women of Vision.

Alex Cettie

Alyse Frederick

Amy Zarosinski

April Hogle

Cameron Cruse

Cassie Hibbert

Chana Frederick

Cristina Foster

Deborah (Debi) K. Creager

Erin Reed

Esther Liu

Gabriela Frask

Heather Sprague

Hope Friedman

Jennifer Eggers

Jessica Zink

Jill Arnold

Kate Emerson

Kelliann Amico

Kelly Wheeler

Kim Krippaehne

Kourtney Strong

Laurie Kendall

Lorri Nelson

Mandy Flett

Maren Sinclair

Megan Cook-Eichelberger

Melissa Goddard

Melissa Soots

Merissa Moeller

Michelle Baer

Michelle Black

Michelle Dodgson

Miki Bragg

Photos: 91ĘÓƵ’s annual Women of Vision event draws hundreds

Rebecca Ocken

Rebekah Huschka

Rena Simon

Renee Ward

Rita Haberman

Rose Batignani

Sarah Young

Shanna Bookal

Shannon Simms

Sharon Libby Eyerly

Shelley Richards

Stephanie Carkin

Valoree Hill

Vanita Carrillo-Rush

Women of Vision 2025

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Jessica Zink has established herself as one of the highest-ranking women at KPFF through 18 years of dedicated civil engineering work. As an associate, group leader and civil engineering project manager, she leads the design of inclusive, accessible and sustainable infrastructure that fosters community connection and resilience.

Zink’s professional portfolio includes award-winning infrastructure projects ranging from critical facilities at the Port of Portland to transformative environmental restoration efforts following the largest dam removal project in U.S. history along the Klamath River Basin. Her work reflects a commitment to community wellbeing through sustainable design principles.

Beyond her technical expertise, Zink demonstrates exceptional leadership in community service initiatives. She has led KPFF’s Canstruction team for six years as co-chair, rallying colleagues to create large-scale structures from non-perishable food items that are donated to the Oregon Food Bank. Under her leadership, the team consistently raises more than $5,000 annually. Zink also initiated KPFF’s participation in volunteer Pack Night shifts at the food bank.

Since 2018, Zink has served as KPFF’s representative in the MECOP program, a collaboration between Oregon State University and local companies supporting engineering students through paid internships. She plays key roles in intern selection and mentorship while advocating for diversity and equity through her work on the program’s diversity committee.

Colleagues praise her leadership style, noting she creates an environment where her team feels supported, trusted and encouraged to grow.

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Amy Zarosinski serves as chief financial officer at S+B James Construction, where she has transformed the company’s financial operations since joining in June 2024 during a critical restructuring period.

Zarosinski brought 12 years of diverse experience to the construction industry, including seven years in real estate development and four years in public accounting audit work. At S+B James, she designed and implemented a new departmental structure, introduced streamlined processes, and launched implementation of a cloud-based ERP platform within her first year.

As a core member of the five-person leadership team, Zarosinski helped develop a new company-wide organizational chart and led creation of updated policies and procedures. She implemented a structured plan-to-action process emphasizing cash flow management and proactive risk mitigation, elevating finance from a back-office function to a strategic driver integrated with project delivery and decision-making.

Zarosinski’s leadership extends to mentoring, where she recruited and mentored a new controller, guided accounting staff in construction accounting specialization, and mentored both a receptionist transitioning to accounting and an Oregon State University intern.

Her academic involvement includes serving as adjunct faculty at Georgetown University, where she leads an international capstone experience for Master of Finance students, sourcing projects from companies in Windhoek, Namibia. She formerly directed Georgetown University’s Women in Finance Network.

Zarosinski actively serves her community as board treasurer for both the Maslow Project since 2014 and CASA since 2016, and has served on the City of Medford Audit Committee since 2019.

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Sarah Young has experienced tremendous growth over her 11-year career in the industry. Beginning as a project designer, Young has advanced to managing teams of designers while earning her architect license and DBIA certification this year.

Young has driven significant organizational changes at her company, implementing project tracking systems and developing forecasting and lead tracking systems that align with long-term goals. She established high standards for written communications, including proposals and meeting minutes, while fostering a culture where team members feel heard, valued and welcomed.

As regional chair for Oregon with the Design-Build Institute of America Northwest Region, Young will assume the role of co-chair for programs and events in the Pacific Northwest early next year. She has presented at regional and national DBIA events, including orchestrating and leading a panel on Virtual Design and Construction techniques and AI integration in the design-build process at a recent conference in Spokane, Washington.

Outside of work, Young volunteers at Portland Night Strike, an organization providing ser-vices to the area’s unhoused residents.

“Sarah is a visionary leader because she is constantly asking not just what should be brought to the table, but why it matters and how it can be applied,” wrote Stephanie Phil-lips, operations coordinator with O’Brien and Company, when nominating Young for Women of Vision recognition. “She blends big-picture thinking with a practical sense of execution, ensuring that ideas don’t just stay in the clouds but take root in meaningful, real-world outcomes.”

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Kelly Wheeler leads project teams and contributes to the Turner & Townsend Heery Oregon office’s senior leadership team. With 10 years of experience as an owner’s representative, Wheeler has established herself as a key operations manager in Oregon.

Since joining Turner & Townsend Heery in January 2022, Wheeler has driven significant organizational growth. Drawing on her unique background as a 911 dispatcher and expertise in security and public safety facilities, she developed and now leads the Oregon Emergency Services Project Management market sector, establishing partnerships with fire departments and public safety agencies.

Wheeler currently serves as lead program manager for Evergreen Public Schools’ Cascadia Tech Building 100, a flagship project expanding access to career technical education for women in traditionally male-dominated fields including automotive, diesel, construction and criminal justice.

Wheeler collaborates with Oregon and Washington school districts and fire departments, leading capital improvement bond programs that strengthen community spaces, resiliency and promote equitable access. She chairs the Partners in Emergency Preparedness Conference, leading a volunteer team that delivers monthly free webinars and an annual conference reaching more than 500 registrants. She founded “Building Opportunities,” a women-run mentorship program providing resources to women in architecture, engineering and construction fields.

At Turner & Townsend, Wheeler leads the Oregon local Graduate Development Program, a structured two-year training plan for recent graduates. She also serves as a national mentor within the organization and supports design-build initiatives through the Design-Build Institute of America.

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Renee Ward is expanding Smart Oregon Solutions impact throughout the Oregon region. The company is working to help Oregon create a 100 percent clean energy solution by 2040, focusing on distributing technology-enhanced smart hybrid solar streetlamps with energy storage capacity and related products.

Ward has developed comprehensive strategies to better serve Oregon’s urban communities and her professional focus centers on building bridges between government entities and diverse populations across the state.

A pastor, Ward founded “Just Because Boutique” and “More Than an Overcomer,” a nonprofit that provides support for single mothers and indigent women with cancer diagnoses. She also has built a network of supporters called “Chemo Buddies.” In her more than 20 years of ministry, she has served as a motivational speaker and life coach, and has been recognized for her advocacy against police brutality. She was named the 2021 KOIN 6 Remarkable Woman for the Portland region.

Ward developed and teaches “S.S.S. principles” – Slow, Steady and Sure” as a framework for overcoming life challenges. Her core affirmation is “A positive diagnosis doesn’t mean a negative outcome.” She openly shares her faith and personal cancer journey to lift others.

In 2023, Ward was among 13,500 entrepreneurs awarded support from Comcast RISE. Her partnership with Portland Playhouse, where they donated space for her boutique, demonstrates how she inspires organizations to contribute practical support to community causes.

She has a diverse career portfolio, having worked in sales, marketing and promotions for companies such as Gannett Outdoor, Crawford Broadcasting, HBO, Pacific Bell and Nabisco.

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Kourtney Strong brings two decades of experience to BBT Architects, a woman-owned commercial architecture firm based in Central Oregon. Strong specializes in educational projects and has played a pivotal role in the Bend Senior High Modernization, the most extensive school project to date for the Bend-La Pine School District. As one of three key de-sign team members, she contributed procurement strategy, stakeholder engagement and creative design solutions to the $150 million campus upgrade.

Strong previously served as president of the Construction Specifications Institute Portland chapter, where she advocated for improved communication between architects, engineers, contractors and owners. During her Portland tenure, she served as a Multnomah County Library Bond Oversight Committee member and volunteered with Big Brothers Big Sisters and the AIA Oregon Drawing Dialogues programs.

At BBT Architects, Strong leads the firm’s revitalized mentoring program, transforming it from day-to-day project management to professional development focused on staff career advancement. She mentors design staff members and has partnered with Human Re-sources and the BBT business director to integrate mentorship into annual staff reviews. Strong also spearheads “Women in Design” conversations, creating monthly forums where female architects and designers share experiences and develop workplace skills.

With DBIA certification, Strong is pursuing design-build opportunities for the firm while remaining active in the Central Oregon community through volunteer work with Bend-Redmond Habitat for Humanity and supporting nonprofits including Heart of Oregon Corps.

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Heather Sprague has spent nearly a decade transforming Aldrich CPAs + Advisors’ construction accounting practice into a market-leading specialty. The certified public account-ant holds an MBA and earned the CCIFP certification from the Construction Financial Man-agement Association, enhancing her ability to deliver specialized insights to construction industry clients.

Sprague designed and led industry-specific training for a 30-person team to strengthen technical knowledge in construction accounting and advisory services. She created the Construction Lunch & Learn series, providing a platform for learning, collaboration and professional growth. As the only non-partner female actively engaged in business development efforts, she works closely with the firm’s business development team to drive growth in the construction niche. Sprague has been accepted into Aldrich’s Rainmaker program, a prestigious opportunity to enhance her business development capabilities.

Matt Van Doren, partner at Aldrich, noted Sprague’s “keen eye for identifying emerging trends” and ability to translate insights into strategic initiatives. He described her as “a dynamic, servant leader who brings equal parts empathy and excellence to every aspect of her work” in her Women of Vision nomination form.

Beyond her professional achievements, Sprague founded and leads a quarterly mentoring group for younger women at Aldrich, fostering belonging in the male-dominated field. She has served as a board member of Canby Foursquare Church since 2019, teaches a nine-week financial literacy course in her local community, and regularly gives presentations to high school students.

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Melissa Soots has dedicated 21 years to advancing affordable housing design with a focus on intergenerational living spaces. She began her career designing homes in the Boston area, where she witnessed the positive impact well-designed homes have on people’s lives.

Driven by the belief that thoughtful design should be accessible at every economic level, Soots moved to Portland to further her studies in affordable housing and sustainable design. She joined Carleton Hart in 2007 and quickly took on leadership roles, managing projects and proving to be a valuable team asset.

“Melissa joined Carleton Hart early in her career and has been an integral part of the firm’s growth and evolution,” noted Brian Carleton, principal, in Soots’ nomination for Women of Vision recognition. “From the outset, she demonstrated strong management skills and quickly became someone I could depend on, even before formal leadership roles were in place.”

Soots leads the firm’s Accessibility Committee, setting high standards and ensuring best practices are applied across projects. She also founded the Residential Unit Design Committee, bringing a rigorous design process that has influenced company-wide residential design approaches.

Through her work on numerous projects, Soots actively engages with communities she designs for, whether serving seniors, families or young children. She incorporates resident and stakeholder perspectives into the design process while maintaining strong client relationships and treating clients as true partners. Outside of work, she serves on committees at her daughters’ schools.

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