Amy Bix

The Quad Cities ATHENA Leadership Awards not only celebrate, recognize and honor women for their leadership skills, career achievements, community service and mentorship, they also promote what leadership looks like. ATHENA recipients say this is powerful because younger or less experienced women in the workplace can identify local role models they can talk to, observe in action and learn from.

“Leaders become mentors for others and impact future growth,” said 2022 ATHENA recipient Teri Drew, executive director of NACOG’s Yavapai County Workforce Development, in a 2022 QCBN interview. “My parents and siblings were and continue to be my mentors. They taught me what to and not to do growing up, and those strong ethics pay off.”

On Sunday, Sept. 24, women from across the region will come together at Starting Point in the Prescott Gateway Mall for the 4th Annual Quad Cities ATHENA Leadership Awards High Tea, presented by Quad Cities Business News. They will hear stories of struggle and triumph, perseverance through fear and how to tap into their inner strength in times of adversity. They will also learn how women lean into their core values and their hopes for the future.

“I believe my life is a blessing and given as a blessing. Giving back is just what I believe I need to do. Mentoring others is one of my tenets and receiving the ATHENA award strengthened that,” said 2018 Flagstaff ATHENA recipient Theresa Bierer, an associate professor of practice in management in the W.A. Franke College of Business at Northern Arizona University. “In our lives, everyone is so busy, but what really makes the fabric of a community is people who step outside of themselves and put others and community first. To me, that’s what the ATHENA Award embodies.”

This year, QCBN will recognize an individual with the traditional ATHENA Leadership Award and also will present the ATHENA Young Professional Leadership Award. In addition, for the first time in Northern Arizona, the Quad Cities ATHENA Leadership Awards will celebrate a business or organization that supports, develops and honors women leaders with the ATHENA Organizational Leadership Award.

Individuals, businesses and organizations are encouraged to nominate extraordinary women leaders who are making a difference in their communities and pioneering a path for others to impact the future.

“My hope for young women entering the workplace is for them to do what they love and love what they do,” added Drew.

Nominations are being accepted until Friday, Aug. 4, at prescottathena.com. QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

Photos by Kay Lyons: QCBN women have been instrumental in bringing the ATHENA Leadership Awards to Prescott. Photographed here are QCBN Co-Owner Amy Bix, Editor Bonnie Stevens and Advertising Manager Ann Herrington.