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WHAT SETS ATHENA APART

Several factors differentiate Athena from other women’s leadership development organizations: 

  • Women In STEM Focused

  • Offer Both Executive & Aspiring Leaders Career-Level Services

  • Collaborator with the UN Global Compact: SDG5 | Gender Equality 

  • Headquartered in Global STEM Hub

  • 25 Year History

  • Philanthropic Arm

  • No National Affiliation

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The most invaluable benefit of Athena membership is the enduring power of its network. The privilege to connect with a diverse and sophisticated group of professional STEM women and learn from one another produces trusted business relationships and priceless friendships."  

Barbara Bry

Athena Founder

San Diego Councilmember

(District 1)

Athena offers corporate partnerships to STEM companies and the service providers that support them to advance their diversity, equity, inclusion, and social impact objectives.

  • Athena offers individual memberships to STEM professionals accessing our suite of leadership development, mentorship, and global advocacy initiatives.

  • Athena's niche is in providing custom, purpose-built platforms with the latest leadership training offerings that allow members to advance their careers in STEM.

LEADERSHIP & TEAM

The Athena Team

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CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

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SHERI CARR

HEAD OF GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS

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WENDY MORRISON

COMPTROLLER

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SOPHIA HARRELL

PROGRAM MANAGER

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TRACY EISSER

MEMBER SUCCESS & DATA ANALYTICS MANAGER

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NICK FISHER

TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIST

About Us

Mission and History

Athena’s mission is to widen the bridge to advance

one million women leading in STEM by 2030

Athena is a global women's advocacy organization that fast-tracks women in STEM through leadership development, mentoring, and advocacy initiatives. By transforming scientists and technologists into corporate leaders, the goal is to widen the bridge to advance 1 million women in STEM by 2030. Its 25-year history of advancing women in a global STEM hub marks Athena as a premier women’s empowerment advocate. Founded in 1998, Athena members feature executives, aspiring leaders, entrepreneurs, and academia from all sectors of life sciences, technology, engineering, mathematics, healthcare, and defense, as well as the associated service providers.

History

In 1998, no women’s organization existed to support and develop executives leading inside San Diego’s STEM community. They say necessity is the mother of invention, and Athena was born of pure necessity. At a time when a handful of remarkable executive women lacked the social capital and market insights to effectively navigate inside these male-dominated industries, they converged with a clear vision and launched Athena. Over twenty years later, the "Athena Effect" is stronger than ever. While women are grossly underrepresented in the STEM economy, the Athena community is unwavering in its pursuit to deliver innovation through diversity. Athena members range from tech entrepreneurs to members of academia to life sciences CEOs, all of whom benefit from the gold-standard leadership development that Athena offers to STEM professionals.

1998

Athena San Diego launches as an executive women's networking group to support female STEM executives; and affiliates with UC San Diego CONNECT, San Diego's flagship entrepreneurial program.

2001

Athena San Diego Foundation is established as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization to award merit-based scholarships to young women pursuing undergraduate degrees in sciences, technology, engineering, and math.

2001

Athena San Diego becomes a stand-alone, member-based organization initially under the auspices of UC San Diego Extension and then UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management.

2008

Athena San Diego becomes an independent 501(c)(6) non-profit membership-based, business league, governed by a Board of Directors and dedicated to advancing the professional and leadership development of women in STEM.

2017

Athena San Diego removes “San Diego” from its name reflecting its market expansion goals and aspirations to serve women beyond California.

2018

Athena marks its 20-year milestone of advancing STEM women’s career and leadership development and announces new collaboration with the United Nations Global Compact.

2019

During the United Nations 73rd General Assembly, Athena and the New York Academy of Sciences announce their partnership to launch the “Athena Assembly” in efforts to publish a data-driven “DEI playbook” to drive corporate performance through gender equality.

2020

Athena announces the launch of its full-scale digital transformation in the midst of a global pandemic, providing a premier digital hub for women’s leadership journey, worldwide.

2021

Athena launches its inaugural Male Allyship Committee. In furtherance of its DEI commitment, these essential diversity advocates address the roadblocks that male allies face in taking action, broadly promoting and disseminating these best practices and activating more male across the STEM economy.

2022

In under 2 years of deploying its turn-key digital hub to give access to Athena’s portfolio of leadership content without boundaries, Athena reaches more than 135 countries, educating women and diversity advocates worldwide.

2023

Athena commemorates its 25-years of powering women’s leadership journey by celebrating its global stakeholder community, its mission and diversity champions. The year-long celebration #IAMONEINAMILLION digitally showcases the success drivers of STEM women and companies enabling Athena’s mission of advancing 1 million women leading in STEM, by 2030.

Milestones

Board Officers & Executive Committee

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SUSAN POSER

CHAIR

VP, Culture & Engagement | Oracle

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CHARITY WILLIAMS

GOVERNANCE & NOMINATIONS

Partner | Cooley

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CHRISTINA ENGLAND

Vice President Marketing - Acute Care Franchise | Heron Therapeutics

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DR. GINA WALLAR

VICE-CHAIR

SVP & General Manager | Fulgent Genetics

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JAIMIE TANNER

TREASURER

Managing Director | EY

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HOLLY SMITHSON

CEO & SECRETARY

CEO | Athena

Board of Directors

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CHRISTIE ANDERSON

WW Principal | IBM Industry Cloud

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JAYE CONNOLLY-LABELLE

Chairman and CEO | RippleNami, Inc.

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SARA HYZER

Vice President, Finance and Chief Financial Officer | WD-40 Company

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SARA MOHTASHAMIPOUR

Associate Director

Sr. Manager, Solution Consulting | CoupaLink at Coupa Software

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ÁINE SHIVNAN

Vice President, Program Management | Qualcomm

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TRACY TING

SVP & CHRO | Encore Capital Group

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NICOLE WINTERS

Senior Vice President | JLL

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DR. KARA BORTONE

Senior Director, Sourcing & Portfolio Management | Johnson & Johnson Innovation, JLABS

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KRISTIN GUSTAFSON

Founder & CEO | Skapa Bio

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IDA KHODAMI

Partner | Two Bear Capital

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DR. LESLIE NANGLE

Vice President, Research | aTyr Pharma

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TASHONDA TAYLOR

Vice President of Customer Operations | SDG&E

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MICHELLE VENDEL

Associate Director

Principal Scientist | Bristol Myers Squibb

Board Officers
Board of Directors

ATHENA EMERITUS AND FOUNDING BOARD MEMBERS

 

We are grateful to the leaders and visionaries that enabled Athena’s 25 year impact in advancing professional women in STEM. Their collective insights and dedication drove the success in building a robust member portfolio serving STEM executives, managers, educators, entrepreneurs and service providers. We salute and honor these founding members for executing on a vision where the world views women’s contributions to innovation as a core strategic value.

Helen Adams

Barbara Drinkrow

Deborah Jondall

Sigrid Pate*

Christie Vail

Erna Adelson

Berit Durler

AnneMarie Kaiser

Leni Perciado

Elaine Weidenhammer

Cathy Akin*

Karin Eastham

Beth Kinsey*

Aboli Rane

Sara Wilensky Napoli

Gemini Babla

Sue Ebner

Karen Klause*

Rashmi Char

Liz Gasser

Revathi Subramanian

Rhonda Rhyne

Annette Winn

Suzanne Biggs

Tamar Elkeles*

Sarah Lamade

Gwen Rosenberg

Teresa Young

Janice Brown

Maureen Feerick

Patti Lazard

Faye Russell

Nicola Zahl

Barbara Bry*

Karen Fisher

Linda Le Beau*

Killu Sanborn

Julie Burgess

Lola Adeyemo

Michele Comtois

Jennifer Brown

Lynne Friedmann*

Dawn Saunders

Anita Busquets

Tammy Garbett

Sandra Louis Schmid

Jeni Schrimsher

Donna Caley Leach*

Karen Garsson

Maggie Lowe

Joleen Schultz

Cathryn Campbell*

Brenda Gebler

Catherine Mackey

Linda Seaton

Kelly Cashion

Susan Gonick

Margaret Mann

Carolyn Fritz

Katherine Kantardjieff

Grace Chui-Miller

Stephanie Shkolnik

Jennifer Cayer

Cathy Gonzales

Vicki Marion

Abby Silverman

Kay Chandler

Diane Goostree

Magda Marquet

Kim Silverman

June Chocheles

Lisa Grillone

Lisa Martens

Joan Stafslien

Nancy Conyers

Lisa Haile

Donna Nichols

Deirdre Stewart

Nicole DeBerg

Lee Wills

Chadia Robertson

Kathleen Hedges

Barbara Noerenberg

Julie Sullivan

Jan Dehesh

Emilie Hersh

Anne O’Donnell*

Susan Ten Eyck Mallory*

Martha Dennis*

Denise Jackson

Benita Page*

Denise Thompson

Karen Anderson

Wendy Johnson

Tracy Lawhon

Jackie Townsend

Sabrina Johnson

Constance Maples

Judy Muller-Cohn

Ruchika Rastogi

Jean Stadwiser

 

*Founding Board Member

ATHENA FOUNDATION BOARD OFFICERS

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SARA ZAKNOEN

PRESIDENT

Principal | Zed Strategic Consulting

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SUE EBNER

TREASURER

Principal | Ebner Consults

ATHENA FOUNDATION BOARD

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TRACY LAWHON

Strategic Development and Operations Consultant

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AMY ROMAKER

Director, Client Service |

Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton, LLP

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VICKI MARION

President | The Marion Group

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GWEN ROSENBERG

Vice President of Global Corporate Communications | 

Integrated DNA Technologies

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