March 01, 2010

Winston-Salem, NC- Salem College's Janele Marek was honored by the Triad Business Journal as a "Top 40 Under 40" leader. Marek, an account director at The Woodbine Agency, is currently the assistant basketball, cross country, and outdoor track and field coach at Salem.

The Business Journal honors forty Triad men and women who are leaders in their respective organizations. The honoree must be between the age of twenty-one and forty on February 26, 2010. They must have shown significant career achievements in 2009, and had substantial community involvement outside their day-to-day job.

In April of 2009, Marek was hired along with her husband, Shawn, to the athletic department at Salem.She donated over 450 hours of her time in 2009 to the cross country and basketball teams at Salem.

She aided the cross country team in their scheduling, meet preparation, traveling, coaching and recruiting. Marek helped lead the team to a second place finish in the 2009 Great South Athletic Conference (GSAC) Championships, in their first season in the conference. She also helped coach two student-athletes selected to the GSAC All-Conference Team, and one that was placed on the GSAC All-Freshmen team. Marek was also instrumental in organizing the 2009 Salem XC Invite, a home cross country meet that hosted twelve colleges and eighteen high schools.

Salem will begin an outdoor track and field program in the 2010-2011 academic year, and Marek will join her husband in developing the program. She was also the assistant coach for the 2009-2010 basketball team, supporting Head Coach Jim Jackson.

Marek also participated in the 2009 Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure. She was the Woodbine Team Captain for the 2009 American Heart Association Heart and Stroke Walk.

The Woodbine Agency is a brand revitalization agency located in downtown Winston-Salem. At 31 years old, Marek is the youngest member of the agency's Leadership Team. She is in charge of Woodbine's strategic planning, marketing and advertising for the agency's clients including Ekornes Inc., Lowe's Home and Improvement, Fruit of the Loom, and High Point Regional Health System.

In 2009, Marek led the agency development of an incremental marketing spend for Ekornes Inc., which targeted seven cities across the United States. Marek was asked to represent Ekornes Inc. at the 61^st Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles in September of 2009. Marek was also instrumental in obtaining the High Point Regional Health System as a new client for Woodbine in 2009, and she currently heads up their account.