Life is busier than ever these days in this part of the province, but for Felicia Izaguirre Werner, the hustle and bustle of Niagara is a welcome sign of how much the place she’s from has grown.
The Niagara-on-the-Lake resident lived outside the country for 15 years, getting her bachelor’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin in the United States, then her MBA at the University of East London in London, U.K., where she would proceed to spend the next decade, working in several leadership roles.
Now, back in Niagara for nearly three years, she said she’s come to appreciate how lively the area is. something she took for granted when she was younger.
“I didn’t give it much credit before I left,” she said. “Seeing the amount of growth and investment that is happening here is really, really exciting.”
Werner is also playing her part in its growth. She’s working at the University of Niagara Falls Canada as its executive director of community and alumni engagement, connecting with people outside the university as a representative of it, creating partnerships and helping out graduates.
For her work, she’s been recognized this year as one of the region’s most prominent business leaders: she was honoured at the Niagara 40 Under Forty Business Achivement Awards in late May, placing on the list of the 40 business leaders under the age of 40 and taking home the Best In Class award, the top prize.
“It’s such a big honour to even be mentioned among any of those individuals,” she said. “With all of the exciting things that are happening Niagara, all of the young leaders that are starting to come back into Niagara, to be amongst them was a massive honour.”
Werner started working at the University of Niagara Falls Canada in early 2024 in her current role. The university is newly established, opening its doors to students in April 2024.
Before that, she spent two and a half years as the head of international recruitment at the University fo East London, where she received her MBA in international finance in 2014.
“Working and living there, I loved it, but all of a sudden, I started missing too many Thanksgivings and some of the smaller holidays,” she said. “Niagara pulled me back.”
In 2023, she moved back home and, for about half a year, put some distance between herself and her career, before re-entering the workforce in 2024. That’s when the opportunity to join the University of Niagara Falls Canada landed in her lap.
That summer, she bought a home in Niagara-on-the-Lake, where her grandmother grew up and where her mother lives.
“It’s really become one of my homes,” she said.
As a resident, she enjoys walking through the downtown core while enjoying a cup of coffee, checking out some of what’s happening in town along the way (she noted the Peach Festival in August is one of her favourite yearly events).
She says Niagara, including Niagara-on-the-Lake, is at a point where it’s future could look like a multitude of things. To her, being able to share NOTL with tourists while also enjoying it as a resident makes her happy.
“There’s a lot of opportunities. I think as long as we keep moving forward, there’s always going to be a looking at the balance of things, but really appreciating the town for all that it is.”
