2023 Athena Leadership Award Nominees

This year I was once again asked to photograph the 3 prestigious nominees for the Athena Leadership Award for the McLean County Chamber of Commerce. Each year candidates are nominated and the winner will be announced on October 5th at Epiphany Estates located just outside of Bloomington in Downs, Illinois.

My role is simple, create professional headshots for each of the women to be used at the event, and in the local Limited Magazine put out by the Pantagraph Newspaper. It’s more than a quick headshot for me, it’s a deep dive into learning about each of these women, capturing their authentic smile, and cheering them on as leaders in the field!

Here are this years Athena Leadership Nominees:

Cortney Helfrich

Cortney has worked with Wilber team, with headquarters in Bloomington Illinois, for over 12 years. She is currently the Chief Personnel Officer and in charge of team member relationships across the facility. She was a delight to work with and it's easy to see why she was nominated for this prestigious award.

With her upbeat personality, she is highly sought-out for speaking engagements for national conferences on recovery management and leadership. Her life philosophy is "if I'm successful, I want others to be successful too". During our photoshoot she gave me a tour of the facility and shared how Wilber has a christ-like philosophy on helping everyone from recent high school students up to university graduates succeed in their organization.

Aggie Hedin

I ran into Aggie this week and she is a pure delight to be around. Her bubbly personality shines through in her photos, and it's no wonder why the community nominated her for this award. Aggie has been in healthcare sine 1990 and currently works as the Senior Client Care Manager at SYNERGY HomeCare of Central Illinois. They have a new facility they operate out of on GE Road right by Tipton Park.

Aggie enjoys being a part of her community, and serving in it by giving back much of her time through volunteer opportunities. She loves the families she gets to serve, and it brings her great joy to get to help keep loved ones stay independent in their homes. She truly is making a positive impact on peoples life on a daily basis.

Lynn Fulton

Lynn is the President of OSF St. Joseph Medical Center. Since her tenure in this role she has helped plan and build the new cancer center, led the facility through the world-wide pandemic and is now working on the growth for our community through recruiting, partnership development and facility master planning.

As a walked around the facility is was apparent that Lynn has a true heart for what she does. On a couple occasion she was paused our conversation to aid visitors throughout the hospital with directions to where they needed to go and assisted a patron in locating a wheelchair to get a loved one to an appointment. Such great care and attention to the community she calls home.

Best of luck to each of these fabulous women…and I’ll see you October 5th at Epiphany Estates!