​History of ATHENA Lenawee

The spirit of ATHENA was born in Lansing, Michigan, when back in the early 1980s, ATHENA International’s founder, Martha Mertz was asked to serve on the Board of Directors of the Lansing Michigan Regional Chamber of Commerce. After finding herself to be the only businesswoman serving on the Board and discovering that her Chamber had only once honored a woman, Martha quickly recognized that the Chamber’s boardroom did not reflect the reality of the community. Martha worked with her Chamber to recognize the leadership of outstanding professional and businesswomen in the community and advocated to provide opportunities for them to move into leadership positions. The first ATHENA Award was presented in 1982. The tenets of the ATHENA Leadership Model®, were later developed through a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

The ATHENA award program was brought to Lenawee by Ann Hughes in 1991, and has grown to have a positive impact on the Lenawee Community. 

Besides the annual award program, ATHENA Lenawee's Council organizes ATHENA Aid events that raise funds for mini-grants and scholarships for women in Lenawee County, helping in a non-traditional way to promote the tenets and lift women up to reach their full leadership potential. 

ATHENA Lenawee is not a membership organization. The best way to support the mission is to attend an event.

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2023 Council

Officers
Londa Pickles - Chair
Andrea Willis - Secretary
Landa Fick - Treasurer

Directors
Dawn Bales
Marcy Brown
Ashley Concord
Landa Fick
Sara Herriman
Julie Koehn
Londa Pickles
Laura Schaedler
​Marty Schoonover
Annette Stone
Andrea Willis
Licia Willnow

​Tenets

The ATHENA Leadership Model® is comprised of eight core tenets:

1. Authentic Self
Understanding who you are - your values, beliefs and thoughts. Honoring your uniqueness. Accepting personal responsibility for your actions.

2. Celebration & Joy
Appreciating and acknowledging your accomplishments. Looking forward to your life with a sense of hope and purpose.

3. Collaboration
Reaching out beyond what you can achieve on your own. Working in unison with others, while celebrating diverse points of view, ideas and actions.

4. Courageous Acts
Standing up and standing firm in the face of fear. Taking risks to speak the truth or challenge the way things have always been done.

5. Fierce Advocacy
Supporting and acting on your passion for people, causes or ideas. Creating an unstoppable force for the greater good.

6. Giving Back
Serving the greater good. Committing to help your personal community of family, friends and peers as well as the global village at large.

7. Learning
Challenging yourself to listen and be open to what is new and unfamiliar. Expanding and developing your knowledge, skills and experiences. Teaching others.
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8. Relationships
​Connecting with and embracing others. Appreciating the gifts and talents of different people in your life.