Chantel has been at Energy Harbor’s Davis-Besse power plant since 2017 and is in the Strategic Engineering group. “We’re the ones that make sure these pieces of equipment function as they are designed and when called upon,” she explains. She also gets involved with troubleshooting when a piece of equipment doesn’t function as designed. “Providing safe, reliable, carbon-free power. That’s why we’re all here,” she says with pride.

Chantel Ortega is a proud wife and mother. Chantel was born and raised in rural central Ohio. She graduated with the highest honors holding dual degrees from the University of Findlay in Environmental Hazardous Materials Management and from the University of Toledo in Chemical Engineering.

“I’ve always been in a male dominated field and I’m trying to instill a high value of what a woman can achieve to my daughters,” she says proudly. “They need to know there’s nothing they can’t do if they put their mind to it.” Chantel hopes to impart some of the same values she learned as a woman into her four daughters. In addition, the Ortega children are learning to be proud of their American, Hispanic and American Indian cultural heritage.

Chantel is involved in her community, active in her church and a member of both the athletic booster club and Parent Teacher Organization in her children’s schools. “People are amazed at how little impact Davis-Besse makes on the environment and how little nuclear waste is actually produced here after 40 years of operation.”