Leah Pistorius
May 25, 2026
Human Centered Design & Engineering senior Athena Ortega has been recognized with the 2026 Dean's Medal for Leadership & Engagement, one of the highest student honors awarded by the University of Washington College of Engineering.
Presented by Dean Nancy Allbritton, the award recognizes just two graduating students across the College of Engineering each year who demonstrate exceptional leadership, service, and commitment to engineering for the public good. Ortega was selected through a competitive nomination and review process that highlights students whose contributions extend beyond the classroom and create lasting impact within their communities.
The recognition marks the second consecutive year an HCDE student has received the honor. In 2025, the award was presented to HCDE graduate Mishti Dhawan.
For Ortega, leadership has centered on building community and helping others succeed. Throughout her time at UW, she has taken on roles that connect students to resources, foster belonging, and create opportunities for collaboration across disciplines.
Athena Ortega
Human Centered Design & Engineering
Leadership and Engagement
Athena Ortega is a human-centered design engineer who grounds her work in community, creativity and empathy. These values shape her commitment to advancing engineering and design for the public good. At the University of Washington, she has pursued this mission through her leadership, mentoring others, and health-focused research.
A central part of Athena’s UW experience has been her work as an Engineering Peer Educator in the Emerging Leaders in Engineering program, where she mentored and taught more than 75 first-year engineering students over three years. In this role, she helped students navigate the transition to college, connect with campus resources, and explore pathways within engineering. Athena also founded and served as president of UX Health, an interdisciplinary student organization focused on the intersection of health, design and user experience. In the HCDE department, she served as co-president of the Human-Centered Design & Engineering Student Association and supports prospective students as a B.S. Peer Adviser.
In addition to her leadership work, Athena conducts research at Seattle Children’s Hospital, applying human-centered design methods to improve collaborative decision-making between pediatric patients, caregivers and clinicians. Working in the Health Information and Visualization Experience Lab, she collaborates with physicians, researchers and designers to develop more accessible and patient-centered digital health experiences. Her interdisciplinary perspective has also been shaped by her involvement in the UW Honors Program, where she further explored the relationship between storytelling, design, and equity-driven innovation.
After graduation, Athena plans to pursue medical school while continuing her work to bridge clinical care, research, and design. She hopes to integrate medicine and human-centered engineering through approaches that advance equitable, compassionate, and collaborative care, while continuing to use creativity as a foundation for healing and community impact.
Learn more about the College of Engineering Dean's Medal here.