The ATHENA Leadership Award and Four Portraits in Local Leadership
The Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce (WERCC)’s ATHENA Leadership Award honours Windsor-Essex residents who have forged new pathways ambitious women might one day travel. In short, the prestigious honour celebrates women—and potentially men—who celebrate women.
Conceived in Lansing, Michigan in 1982 by Martha Mayhood Mertz, a local chamber of commerce director, the ATHENA Leadership award is intended to recognize the diverse, inclusive, and collaborative ways in which women lead. Today it’s overseen by ATHENA International, a global non-profit intended to “ignite, amplify, and celebrate girls, women, and allies” through public recognition events and skill-building experiential learning programs. The initiative, named after the goddess of wisdom in Ancient Greek myth, now counts more than 8,000 recipients in more than 500 regions across 48 of the United States and 11 countries.
The WERCC first bestowed the ATHENA Leadership Award in 1996, making ours the first community in Canada to participate in the ATHENA project. Today, the Chamber, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, honours one local leader each year at its Business Excellence Awards – the premier awards show of its kind in Windsor-Essex. To date, 29 local leaders have been recognized.
According to ATHENA Committee Chair Lee Anne Doyle, a retired city planner and teacher, “we look for outstanding leaders who give back to our community, who make a difference.”
(While the ATHENA Leadership Award celebrates women, men are eligible and encouraged to apply, provided they have demonstrable success promoting women to achieve their leadership potential.)
As Doyle explains, each year the seven-woman ATHENA Leadership Award committee considers somewhere between 8 and 15 serious candidates. Candidates are assessed for private and/or public-sector business accomplishments, mentorship, community service, and quantifiable achievements like awards and publications. Online nomination forms typically open in the summer months and close in mid-September.
The WERCC also oversees a local ATHENA Scholarship Fund. Each fall since 1999, the initiative has rewarded four students with local ties who have elevated their communities, excelled as role models, and achieved excellence in their fields while making a better world for women.
In honour of the WERCC’s landmark anniversary, The Drive spoke with four remarkable women about their ATHENA experience—and, more importantly, what leadership means to them.
Helga Reidel (2025 ATHENA Leadership Award recipient)
Longtime area executive Helga Reidel is this year’s Leadership Award recipient. Reidel most recently served as a CEO of Enwin. Previously, she held high-ranking positions at the City of Windsor, WFCU Credit Union, and the Greater Essex County District School Board. As a private citizen, Reidel has served and continues to serve on several boards of directors of both for-profit and non-profit organizations—notably finishing a stint chairing the University of Windsor board this fall. She is passionate about social services, health care, education, financial development, diversity, and community building.
Over a long and distinguished career across the public and private sectors, Reidel took countless students and early-career employees under her wing, empowering them to achieve their professional goals and become influential leaders themselves. “I think many people think leadership is management and simply organizing and directing a team,” she explains. “That is certainly a part of leadership, but leadership is so much more. It involves setting a positive example based on integrity and the everyday actions that leaders exemplify in their work.”
Reidel has been involved with the Chamber of Commerce in a professional capacity for many years and so was aware of the ATHENA program prior to her recognition. While multiple colleagues had privately endorsed Reidel in the past, she finally accepted a nomination last year. “Even though I have held several public roles, I don’t really crave public attention,” stresses Reidel, who hopes to be remembered as an honest leader with high integrity. “However, I think it is important young girls and women have role models to emulate to build their careers in a successful manner.
“I would encourage young professionals to look around them and to nominate others. I believe women succeed when we support each other.”
Meighen Nehme (2024)
2024’s Leadership Award went to Meighen Nehme, president of The Job Shoppe, a successful homegrown human resources firm.
Nehme and The Job Shoppe’s advocacy for job seekers began after her graduation from the University of Windsor, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration. Then 25 years old, Nehme found herself surrounded with a group of competent, ambitious classmates hitting the job market simultaneously. All the cohort needed was a persuasive, singular voice to market its members to prospective employers.
Over the past two decades, Nehme, who was profiled in The Drive last spring, has contributed to the advancement of women (and men!) in Windsor-Essex by helping qualified candidates find meaningful employment and successful companies build strong teams. “Beyond business success,” says Nehme, who also founded the local non-profit Windsor Corporate Challenge, “I take pride in being a mentor and advocate for women in leadership, encouraging others to step forward with confidence.”
Through this work, Nehme has built herself a privileged position from which to gain valuable insights about how effective leaders operate in the modern world. “Women are sometimes told that they are ‘too emotional’ or ‘too nurturing’ to lead, but in truth, these traits make us exceptional leaders,” says Nehme, who has come to appreciate the power of empathy. “The ability to connect, to understand, and to inspire is what builds strong teams, fosters loyalty, and drives meaningful change.
“One of the biggest misconceptions,” she continues, “especially when it comes to women in leadership, is that vulnerability is a weakness. Too often, society equates strong leadership with toughness, detachment, or an unshakable façade, but some of the most effective leaders lead with empathy, authenticity, and emotional intelligence—qualities that are often undervalued but incredibly powerful. Leadership is about using vulnerability to build trust, foster collaboration, and create spaces where others feel seen, heard, and valued.”
Marlene Corey (2021)
The broadcast media innovator Marlene Corey became the 25th recipient of the ATHENA Leadership Award in 2021. Corey, who retired in 2023, spent more than three decades with Cogeco Cable, where she worked in management, production, and direction—even producing the BEA ceremony for local broadcast for over 20 years.
Like many ATHENA honourees, Corey’s “origin story” involves triumph over adversity. A University of Windsor Communication alum, Corey grew up the youngest of five children to blue-collar parents in downtown Toronto. She was the first member of her family to attend university.
At an early age, Corey found meaning and respite in extracurricular activities—particularly community-subsidized youth soccer programs, but eventually drama and student government, too. It being the 1970s and ‘80s, Corey’s participation in sports butted against received notions of femininity.
Eventually, working in the media granted Corey proximity to power and influence—local politicians, athletes, businesspeople, and organizers—allowing her to further refine her leadership philosophy.
“One thing I say to anybody, regardless of field, is you need to find mentors,” says Corey. “It’s amazing to go to school, but you need to be able to shadow someone you respect who has the drive and compassion you do.”
Today, Corey still does marketing consulting but spends much of her time teaching yoga and Pilates and volunteering for worthwhile initiatives like One Day Dreams and the Rotary Food Project, which delivers Leamington produce to Windsor’s New Song Church.
“I’m all about mitigating stress and learning to live a life that’s full of joy and wellness,” says Corey, who notes that learning to balance your life is integral to the ATHENA philosophy.
Of course, there’s still something to be said for old-fashioned hard work, which is itself a form of service. “When you work hard, people know your name through your work ethic and your service, and it serves you,” says Corey, who claims she worked 15-hour days for more than 20 years. “If you live your life giving and serving, through that service, you receive abundance.”
Loretta Stoyka-Henderson (2015)
Lorretta Stoyka-Henderson won her own Leadership Award in 2015, two decades after bringing the honour to Windsor as chair of what was then called the Windsor Chamber of Commerce.
A former teacher and court worker, Stoyka-Henderson built a peerless career in employment law, working her way up to senior counsel with Miller Canfield. The first Ontario lawyer certified as a specialist in worker’s compensation law, Stoyka-Henderson wound down her private practice after ten years of excellent work and accepted a vice-chair appointment to the Workplace Safety and Insurance Tribunal. She also spent ten years of a decorated career appointed to the Ontario Review Board, most of which as vice chair. “I’ve really had more than my 15 minutes!” she shares with a laugh.
“When I started out, everything was a hurdle,” says Stoyka-Henderson, who currently volunteers her time to The Hospice of Windsor and Essex County. “There were lawyers who told me I would fail because there were so few women in law. Women had their place, so to speak.”
Establishing the Leadership Award program in Windsor when she did created a vital outlet for recognizing local women who rejected this notion. “I’m proud of all the women in our community we were able to highlight,” says Stoyka-Henderson, “because they deserve that recognition. They’ve achieved so much—especially the earlier ones, under great effort.”
Stoyka is also proud of her work establishing the local ATHENA Scholarship Fund. “To see what those young women are achieving, before they’re even 22 or 23, and how they give back to the community,” she raves, “it just warms my heart.”
Over a long and varied career across the private and public sectors, Stoyka-Henderson has touched countless lives. Her proudest achievement, however, emerged from the domestic sphere. “I think my greatest achievement is my son,” she shares. “He’s been the CEO of two companies, and he’s always valued women and had them at the top.”
Further information about local ATHENA initiatives is available at the Windsor-Essex Regional Chamber of Commerce’s website: www.windsoressexchamber.org.
