Tessa Trelz Receives Trailblazer Award from UM-St. Louis

Armstrong Teasdale partner Therese “Tessa” Rolufs Trelz and founder of the firm’s Professional Advancement of Women Program has been named a recipient of the 2010 University of Missouri-St. Louis Women Trailblazer Award.

The UM-St. Louis created the Trailblazer Award in 1995 to recognize women who have been the first to occupy a position traditionally held by men, forged new pathways for women or contributed significantly to UM-St. Louis or the community. Trelz will be honored at a March 18 ceremony at the UM-St. Louis Millennium Student Center. This year’s theme is “Writing Women back into History” and the guest speaker is Dr. Blanche Touhill.

As a member of Armstrong Teasdale’s Corporate Services Group, Trelz represents clients ranging from international publicly-held corporations to local privately owned midsize corporations. Her work involves complex business transactions and includes such issues as strategic partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and shareholder and board of directors matters.

Armstrong Teasdale’s PAW Program was founded by Trelz in 1998 to support and promote women attorneys. She was director of the program until last month when she turned the helm over to Martha “Marty” Hereford, an immigration partner in the firm’s St. Louis office. Trelz was the first woman to serve on the firm’s management committee. Her commitment to the community is extensive and includes her service on the St. John’s Mercy Medical Center board of directors and chair of its budget and allocations committee, and Family Support Network board of directors and executive committee. She chairs the Women’s Initiative Leadership Council at UM-St. Louis and was recognized as a 2009 Business Practitioner Honoree by the St. Louis Daily Record Women’s Justice Award. She received her J.D., cum laude and Order of the Woolsack, from Saint Louis University School of Law in 1987 and her B.A., with distinction, from the University of Virginia in 1987.