Paradigm Award
The most prestigious award for professional women in Greater Philadelphia
The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia Paradigm Award is presented annually during Women’s History Month to a businesswoman whose outstanding professional and personal achievements serve as a model for success.
Paradigm Award honorees are distinguished influential executives of profit-making enterprises with a strong local economic impact. Her leadership and dedication to a variety of interests contribute significantly to the socio-economic prosperity of the Greater Philadelphia region. She is respected in her profession and throughout the community for her commitment to excellence and her vision for women and future generations.
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About the 2019 Honoree

Jami Wintz McKeon
Chair, Morgan Lewis
Jami Wintz McKeon is the Chair of Morgan Lewis, providing strategic direction to the largest law firm in the world led by a woman. Under her leadership Morgan Lewis has grown into one of the principal global providers of legal services, assisting clients throughout the United States, Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.
Reelected by the firm partnership to serve a second term as Chair, Jami herself is a lifelong member of the Morgan Lewis team, having begun her legal career at the firm in 1981. She has held various management positions, including membership on the firm’s Advisory Board. Immediately prior to assuming the chair, she led Morgan Lewis’s litigation practice, the firm’s largest group. She became Chair in 2014.
During her tenure, Morgan Lewis has experienced unprecedented, and carefully targeted, growth throughout the world, which has placed Jami among the elite architects of strategic combinations in the legal industry. The firm’s more than 2,200 lawyers, patent agents, benefits advisers, regulatory scientists, and other specialists in 30 offices across the globe focus exclusively on delivering exceptional service to clients. A significant emphasis has been the establishment of a robust presence in Asia, Europe, and select centers in the United States. The firm’s careful growth is a direct result of her commitment to delivering the best possible services in the sectors and regions in which our clients do business.
Morgan Lewis’s achievements under Jami’s leadership have won frequent plaudits from other independent analysts and publications. Recent accolades include recognition from BTI Consulting Group, one of the legal industry’s premier assessors of trends, as the #1 Innovation Champion among law firms. BTI, which bases its assessments on independent surveys of clients, has also bestowed numerous other accolades on Morgan Lewis, including, this year, for the third year in a row, naming multiple partners as Client Service All Stars, a recognition Jami herself won in 2017.
The firm also has achieved national recognition from The American Lawyer, the legal industry’s most prestigious independent publication. Morgan Lewis finalists for the publication’s Global Legal Awards included Grace Speights, leader of the firm’s labor and employment practice, who is among three finalists for Attorney of the Year. Grace is among the foremost lawyers in the United States assisting clients in the era of the #MeToo movement. The firm also was named a finalist in the Best Use of Technology category for its Parallex innovation, a revolutionary data analytics program; Best Client/Law Firm Team for the firm’s partnership with Aramark; and Best Law Firm Business Team for its business operations team.
A standout feature of Jami’s leadership has been her commitment to pro bono work that benefits the larger community in which Morgan Lewis offices are located. Last year, 100% of the firm’s lawyers worked on pro bono matters, while nearly all of the firm’s lawyers met the Morgan Lewis goal of committing 20 hours to pro bono work. The American Lawyer recognized Morgan Lewis as among the top eight firms in the United States in terms of its “breadth of commitment” to providing pro bono services and placed the firm among the top three internationally in the category. Each year, the firm also hosts a series of Community Impact Week events throughout its global network of offices, dedicated to supporting local initiatives. This year, under the theme “Helping Children Thrive,” the firm carried out more than 150 events to helping children, their families, and the nonprofit organizations that tirelessly support them.
Throughout her tenure, Jami has promoted increasing the diversity of the firm’s leadership, as well as client teams in the knowledge that heterogeneous groups working collaboratively inevitably produce better solutions. To this end, she launched the ML Women initiative, which harnesses the strength of the firm’s women through partnerships with clients and to create opportunities for women to come together around a shared industry or practice. Today women manage many of the firm’s practices and offices worldwide and serve in the most senior firmwide leadership positions. Diversity initiatives as well are strongly supported, providing provide opportunities and mentorships for lawyers of a multiplicity of backgrounds. The firm is particularly proud to be recognized for its commitment in this area, winning the Justice & Diversity Center’s Outstanding Law Firm in Public Service Award, and being listed by Law360 among the Top 10 Best Law Firms for Women.
Past Winners
2018
Wendy Hamilton
General Manager
SugarHouse Casino
2017
Teresa Bryce Bazemore
President
Radian Guaranty Inc.
2016
Emily L. Bittenbender
Managing Partner
Bittenbender Construction, LP
2015
Lynn Utter
Chief Operating Officer
Knoll Office
2014
Sue Schick
Chief Executive Officer
UnitedHealthcare, Pennsylvania and Delaware
2013
Denise Morrison
President and Chief Executive Officer
Campbell Soup Company
2012
Rosemary Turner
President
UPS Chesapeake District
2011
Lynn L. Elsenhans
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Sunoco, Inc. and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP
2010
Mary Stengel Austen
President & CEO
Tierney
2009
Judy Spires
President
ACME Markets
2008
Deborah M. Fretz
President & CEO
Sunoco Logistics Partners, L.P.
2007
Terry D’Alessandro
Market CEO Metro Philadelphia/Southern New Jersey
Sovereign Bank
2006
Dorrit J. Bern
President, CEO & Chairman of the Board
Charming Shoppes, Inc.
2005
Carol A. Ammon
Chairman & CEO
Endo Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
2004
Linda Rosanio
President
The Star Group
2003
Reneé Amoore
President
The Amoore Group
2002
Joanne Harmelin
President
Harmelin Media
2001
Molly D. Shepard
President & CEO, Shepard Executive Resources, LLC
Principal, The Leader’s Edge
2000
Juliet J. Goodfriend
Chairman
Strategic Marketing Corporation
1999
Marilyn Ware
Chairman
American Water Works Company, Inc.
1998
Judith von Seldeneck
President and CEO
Diversified Search Companies
1997
Betsy Z. Cohen
Chairman and CEO
JeffBanks, Inc.
1996
Rena Rowan
Executive Vice President
Jones New York
1995
Jane Pepper
President
Pennsylvania Horticultural Society
1994
Judy Wicks
Proprietor
The White Dog Cafe and The Black Cat
1993
Dr. Emma C. Chappell
Chairman, President and CEO
United Bank of Philadelphia
Paradigm Scholarship for Working Women
The Paradigm Scholarship for Working Women, presented in conjunction with the Paradigm Award, is a merit-based scholarship that is awarded annually to women who are working toward an undergraduate degree.
Past Scholarship Recipients
2018 Recipients
April Alexander
Maureen Geiss
Brittany Halbsgut
Fatima Laghrissi
Musu Morris-Fello
Shyeema Robinson
Dana Rose
Anabel Salce
Jeanetta Thompson
2017 Recipients
Katrina Bryson
Katura Marshall
Janessa Morales
Bukola Ogunleye
Lynette Peterson
Angela Rojas
Nikiya Small
Kassy Walklett
Jowanna Williams-Parks
2016 Recipients
Melinda Adorno
Stephanie Brown
Pamela Cooper
LaCountess Ingram
Deborah Nicoletti
Yolanda Robinson
Jessica Warwick
Jessica Zmuida
2015 Recipients
Kathleen Austin
Chloe Bendistis
Angela Cirino
Dana Corley
Catherine Rogers
Jessica Ruiz-Lebron
Michelle Serious
Ashley Slowe
Maya Stewart
2014 Recipients
Suzanne Calabria
Deborah Clarke
Tonya Diggs
Carol Kemm
Rita Marie Pinto
Meghan Spurlock
Autumn Staats
Joi Tolliver
Jessica Zmuida
2013 Recipients
Jill Albright
Esther Andreessen
Theresa Clark
Michelle Gaspari
Nichole Harrison
Cheri Mitchell
Cherry Moragne
Janice Reid-Clarke
Chakeila Smith
Sharon Weeks
2012 Recipients
Constance Carty
Kristen Cashman
Tonya Diggs
Mary Houton
Joy Keys
Vanessa Reed-Price
Autumn Staats
Maureen Starkovich
Mali Thomas
2011 Recipients
Dana Jackson
Sharifa Jones
Mary Jane Massott-Doman
Jessica Mazzeo
Cheri Mitchell
Emily Montalvo
Mary Podgorski
Janet Sparks
Melissa Stewart
Deirdre Young-Bey
2010 Recipients
Michele Buchanan
Freya Chester
Amy Costa
Alexia Daniels
Ravesa Goga
Beth Haines
Vanessa Reed-Price
Nicole Reggia
2009 Recipients
Antoinette Bing
Donna Bonnett
Annette Clark
Michele Louden
Cerise McCall
Stacey Pinkney
Cassandra Summers
2008 Recipients
Josephine DiGregorio
Vicki Duncan
Kathleen Fabrizio
Dana Fink
Joanne Fleming
Kia Joynes
Mylinh Pham
Lori Rohrbach
2007 Recipients
Donna Bonnett
Renay Oberholtzer
Dorothy Reed
NazAarah Sabree
Susan Vinchiarello
2006 Recipients
Mary Dornblaser
Tiffany Green
Kia Joynes
LaDonna Lindsay-Fuller
Brenda Pawlak
Bridget Zarzoso
2005 Recipients
Donna Bonnett
Vanessa Gantt
Diane McCullough
Dorothy Oczkowski
Nyzinga Patterson
2004 Recipients
Edith Aponte
Carla S. Forrest
Deborah Hoffer
Nicole S. Lewis
Lisa Love
2003 Recipients
Julie Dolga
Janice Gerold
Nyzinga Patterson
Brooke Pfeilmeier
Niya Spells
2002 Recipients
Donna Carroll
Carla Forrest
Sheila Highsmith
Deborah Hoffer
Patricia Muraresku
Dorothy Oczkowski
2001 Recipients
Sharon Brown
Tameata Harris
Rupa Raghirsingh
Ruth Rosario
Sacha Williams
2000 Recipients
Connie Fraser
Marilyn Malin
Patricia Muraresku
Rena Rodgers
Janet Rosati
Linda B. Watson