The Patricia Lacey Metzger Distinguished Achievement Award

Stephanie Lyles of Topside Federal Credit Union received the Patricia Lacey Metzger Distinguished Achievement Award at the Women’s Leadership Colloquium on Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022. The recognition goes each year to a woman who’s established herself as a leader in her chosen field, and shown personal and professional integrity along the way.

The 28th annual daylong colloquium, held each November, unfolded in a room filled with energy – and some of the Fredericksburg region’s most inspiring and motivated women – at the University of Mary Washington’s Stafford Campus. Nationally recognized best-selling author Fran Hauser, a startup investor and women’s empowerment speaker, delivered the keynote. The colloquium also included collaborative break-out sessions led by regional business leaders, networking and a “wine-down” hour with door prizes.

“After a two-year delay, to be back in-person for this event and to have the interest and attendance reminds us of the importance of empowering our career-minded women,” said UMW Associate Provost of Career & Workforce and colloquium co-chair Kimberly Young.

The 23rd Metzger award winner since 1999, Lyles is director of marketing outreach at Topside Federal Credit Union, where she also has worked in community relations and business development. Before that, she started The Real Estate Book of Fredericksburg, a color, digest-sized magazine of homes for sale that she ran for 17 years.

Lyles has been an ambassador for the Fredericksburg Regional Chamber of Commerce for more than a decade, serving on its Network of Enterprising Women and Workforce Now committees. She has been a board member for the North Stafford Rotary Club, Friends of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library, Rappahannock Goodwill Industries and UMW’s Women’s Leadership Colloquium.

A graduate of the Leadership Fredericksburg program, she has received the Laurie A. Wideman Enterprising Woman’s Award and been recognized as the National Youth Involvement Board’s Outstanding Delegate of the of the Year. She volunteers at the Stafford County SPCA and Stafford Emergency Relief through Volunteer Efforts (SERVE).

The Metzger award “showcases how vital women’s leadership is to our community,” said UMW Executive Director of Human Resources Beth Williams, who co-chairs the colloquium with Young.

This year’s event featured a book-signing for Hauser’s two publications, The Myth of the Nice Girl: Achieving a Career You Love Without Becoming a Person You Hate and Embrace the Work, Love Your Career. Contributing partners included Visionary Sponsor Central Rappahannock Regional Library; Innovator Sponsors Mary Washington Healthcare and Topside Credit Union; and Partner Sponsors C Parker Consulting, Critical Thinking Group, GEICO, Matern Staffing and Rappahannock Electric Cooperative.