In addition to familiarizing local government with women-owned businesses, she says it has always been part of her mission through PWC to educate the general public. One of the ways PWC does this is by giving out awards emphasizing the history and ongoing role of women in the industry. The Emily Roebling Award, for example, is a leadership recognition named after the woman responsible for the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge after her husband, engineer John Augustus Roebling, got decompression sickness and couldn’t finish the job. For several years, this award was given out by Mary Roebling, her granddaughter-in-law.

PWC also gives a scholarship to named after the organization’s late board member Gwendolyn Colbert Kushner, who headed the first minority women business office for the MTA. The scholarship, Janis says, assists women pursuing a Master of Science degree in an effort to “continue that climb to break the concrete ceiling, which is harder to break than the glass ceiling.”

Janis’ efforts to demolish that concrete ceiling has inspired many other women and men some of them now stand on her board of directors.

“She’s got more energy than anybody I ever met,” says Nancy Czesak, an executive with Tishman Construction and long-time friend of Janis.

Looking at the packed grand ballroom at a recent PWC event at Manhattan’s Club 101, Czesak marveled at how PWC has grown since its early days.

“Twenty-five years ago, Tishman asked me to go to one of these events, and one guy asked, ‘What are the three of you going to talk about?’,” she says. Now, Czesak points out women are CEOs, adding, “They’re no longer just in the background.”

Today, men come to PWC gatherings because the group’s events have become the place to see and meet some of the most influential names in the industry. Greg Roberts from the architecture firm AKF described PWC’s happenings as “a lot better than a lot of the Old Boys Clubs that I’ve been to.”

Unsparingly honest and open, she recognizes that many private companies did not let women in the door out of enlightened self-interest. Many were responding to pressure and anxious about their images, and she wants to keep the pressure on to continue the advancement.

“I’d like to see a woman president of Turner Construction,” she says.

A longtime supporter of affirmative action, she calls government goals “a stepping stone to put you into the mainstream... and then to become highly competitive because that’s what this field is: highly competitive.”

Her instinctive laughter erupts again.

“The best woman wins!”