PDXWIT Celebrates 2019 Award Winners

Since its inception in 2017, PDXWIT's community driven Annual Awards program has recognized six individuals in Portland's tech industry. We created this program because we noticed that those who identify as women, non-binary, and underrepresented are required to work extremely hard everyday to remain in this industry. We decided it was critical for us to celebrate the efforts of everyone in this community, and to recognize individuals who have changed our lives through their speaking or glass-ceiling breaking initiatives. 

There are two awards each year: Best Speaker and Best Contributor. Our award winners are based on community nominations, with a panel of PDXWIT volunteers narrowing down the Best Speaker category to three finalists and making the final decision on Best Contributor. 

These individuals are being recognized for their efforts to improve the industry for all of us. In addition to the recognition and physical awards, PDXWIT donates $1000 in each of the winners’ names to a non-profit of their choice. Possible non-profits this year included NAYA, FreeGeek, Girls Build, Black United Fund, and Latino Network.

This year, the Best Contributor award went to Asia Kane. Asia is a passionate, dedicated individual who’s made genuine efforts to improve the culture at Opal Software. Her peers describe her as reliable, accountable, and, to quote, “one of the best people I have ever had the privilege to work with”. As a constant support and leader in every sphere of her influence, Asia has helped to lead the Diversity and Inclusivity Club at Opal Software and spearheaded a very well-attended PDXWIT event last year. Asia chose for the $1000 donation in her name to go to Girls Build.

Best Speaker was decided live at the PDXWIT Annual Awards Celebration on December 11th and went to Miki Demeter, a Security Researcher at Intel. Miki's nomination was for her talk at a June PDXWIT event "We're Out Here: Queer Folks Talk Work, Tech and Life." Her powerful talk honored the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and shared her personal and professional journey towards the woman she is today.

Best Speaker was decided live at the PDXWIT Annual Awards Celebration on December 11th and went to Miki Demeter, a Security Researcher at Intel. Miki's nomination was for her talk at a June PDXWIT event "We're Out Here: Queer Folks Talk Work, Tech and Life." Her powerful talk honored the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and shared her personal and professional journey towards the woman she is today.

Miki selected NAYA for her $1000 donation and requested it be made in her name as well as the other two 2019 best speaker finalists: Tiffany Golden and Torri Wright.