Creating a Safety Net, Together | Choosing Leadership Over Fear

Dear Athena Community,

Like many of you, I am wrestling with a deep sense of grief and helplessness in the wake of Alex Pretti and Renee Goode’s murders in Minnesota. It’s heart wrenching to witness such inhumane violence against our neighbors—especially when it unfolds in full view, amid a sea of bystanders, leaving many wondering how our world could feel this unsafe and this close to home.

Please know this: you are not alone and this intense fear is natural.

However, when fear takes hold, it doesn’t just live in our thoughts—it settles into our nervous systems, our bodies, homes, and workplaces. Anxiety unchecked can also shrink our world. In my conversations with so many Athena members, I understand that isolating and numbing can feel like the only way to protect your mental health. And yet, history proves the highest form of leadership doesn't emerge from certainty or comfort—but rather from our core values revealed in the storms.

This is one of those moments that will shape us like nothing else.

What hurts me is seeing much of the goodness of inclusion that you’ve helped nurture—across institutions and society at large —and then watch its erasure in a single year. But I also respect there couldn’t be a more pressing time for Athena to call on its community and serve as a true safety net, especially amid this war on diversity and its very real collateral damage.

What I crave the most …is action…as standing still feels unnatural and akin to tossing away my entire agency. In response, Athena is preparing to roll out what we call: The Safety Net.

This is neither a movement, program or platform. It’s simply caring people holding space for one another. A place to feel safe in our own skin, our bodies, homes, and companies. At the center of this safety net is a place to lead not through fear, but through humanity.

The ultimate purpose of Athena’s Safety Net is to explore how we meet this moment together—as brave moms and dads, sisters and brothers, daughters, sons, and citizens—refusing that futile instinct to wait for someone else to come save us. 

As this safety initiative takes shape, you will hear more. If any part of this lands for you, I invite you to reply to staff@athenaSTEMwomen.org, and we will include you in our inaugural convening.

Please know this… Athena is attuned to the impact this moment has on your job performance, your career, your family and sense of belonging. We remain vigilant in Athena’s mission to support this community with the full promise of the leaders within it.

You have my commitment—personally and professionally—that Athena will never assume the bystander position that so often plagues those in position of authority.

On behalf of our Board of Directors, our 26-year legacy of training leaders with the highest integrity, and the conviction that we are made for this, we’re prepared to transform this climate of fear as the greatest purpose of our time.

With Resolve & Respect,

Holly Smithson

President & Chief Executive OfficerAthena