CRANBERRY TWP The panelists gathered on the stage looked out over a sea of faces eager to hear their take on leadership across the region.

And as those eight female leaders spoke, more than 200 guests — a vast majority of them women — listened intently to their takes on the region, its future, family life and everything in between during the first “Women Shaping Our Region” event hosted by the Butler County Chamber of Commerce.

“This region has transformed, but the people are forever the core,” said Kim Tillotson Fleming, chairman and CEO of Hefren Tillotson. “The people are really what make this region progress.”

All the panelists agreed Friday that the Midwest values found in Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania played a major role in propelling the region forward in the last several years. Panelists talked at length about how this growth is not only attracting new business and residents to the region, but also helping bring home many people who moved away but never forgot their Western Pennsylvania roots.

“I hate when people call Butler County and Westmoreland County 'outlying counties,'” said Aradhna Oliphant, CEO of Leadership Pittsburgh. “We're a region. When we cheer for the Steelers, we're not cheering as separate counties. We're cheering as a region.”

Oliphant stressed the need for community leaders to tackle the issues holding back the region — in particular the lack of transportation. She argued how the lack of transportation makes it hard for a strong and willing workforce to go where jobs are, as well as eager employers to be able to fill those jobs because potential employees can't get there.

Hilary Mercer, vice president of the Shell Cracker Plant in Beaver County, pointed out how it was a little-known fact that the global company hires more Penn State graduates than any other energy and petrochemical company. Up until the Shell plant under construction in Western Pennsylvania, a majority of those engineering jobs were based on the Gulf Coast.

Now, she quipped, several Penn State alums working down south can't wait to return to the region.

“What does this region do to make people thrive?” Mercer asked. “That starts by a region that asks itself 'What are we doing well? What could we do better?'”

Those very questions, Mercer explained, are exactly what local and state leaders are asking. And listening to and evaluating the answers only makes the region stronger.

“Sometimes we tend to think of ourselves by separate regions,” Butler County Commissioner Leslie Osche pointed out. “But those county lines have really started to blur.”

Osche said how, at one time, she would head south into traffic leaving Butler County to work elsewhere. But today, she see those lines of traffic flowing in both directions, adding the county continues to grow and attract industry.

Mercer touted not only the four-year institutions of higher learning across the region, but also pointed out that the community college system is making a huge impact as well.

She said this is especially true by how the colleges partner with local business and industry leaders to tailor training and classes for tomorrow's workforce.

“Life is about stages, and it's important to enjoy the stage you're in,” said Kim Geyer, a Butler County commissioner and one of the event's moderators. “To this very day, I always reach back and draw from those things.”

Geyer talked about her experience balancing a successful career and family life. Touched upon by all the women on the stage, finding that sense of work/life balance was seen as an important part of any successful career, but especially for women leaders.

“Once I had kids, I had to ask myself, 'What do I want for my life?' I wanted a family. I wanted kids,” explained panelist Lisa Sylvester, an anchor for WPXI news and former network correspondent for CNN and ABC. “You have to find what works for you and how you balance everything.”

Sylvester explained how a major draw for moving to Pittsburgh was the sense of community she and her family discovered there.

Moreover, while some may have viewed her decision to leave CNN as a backward step on the media ladder, she said the move afforded her the opportunity to spend more time being a mother and mentor to her children.

“It's a great time to be a woman in this region,” said Karen Wolk Feinstein, president and CEO of Jewish Healthcare Foundation. “There is no ceiling.”

Lisa Schroeder, president of the Pittsburgh Foundation, likened the strength of women in leadership roles to building a tent. She said women build a big tent and invite the community in to listen to what they have to say and then make a decision based on what they hear.

“I've lived and worked in five cities. I've seen a place where people from all sectors come together to make it happen,” Schroeder said. “The grit, determination and the imagination of the region — the tremendous challenge to capture on the success we've built.”

Schroeder pointed to the cross section of business, philanthropic and public leaders that came together to transform Pittsburgh from one of the most polluted regions in the country to a leading metropolitan city in the green movement.

Feinstein added that family roots often bring people back to Western Pennsylvania to raise families and pursue opportunities.

“I love this sense of place and this connection to a place,” Feinstein said. “There is history of so many families who live here, stay here, go elsewhere and come back here.”