Palo Alto Chamber of Commerce proudly presents the
2026 Annual ATHENA® Awards
Thursday, October 15, 2026
5:30 pm - 8:00 pm
El Prado Hotel
520 Cowper St.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
The ATHENA® award is given to honor exceptional woman leaders who demonstrate the highest levels of professional excellence, give back to their communities and, most importantly, assist other women in realizing their full leadership potential – and it is an international award, having been given to more than 6,500 recipients in over 500 cities and 8 countries. Locally it is awarded by our Chamber of Commerce.
2026 Athena Leadership Award Winners
HONORING
Athena Leadership Award
Irene Wong
CEO of the Palo Alto Community Fund
Athena Emerging Professional Leadership Award
Peying Lee
Director of Community Parnerships for Project Safety Net
Past ATHENA Leadership Award Recipients
Cecilia Burciaga (1987) • Loretta Green (1988) • Gail Stypula (1989) • Rose Kleiner (1990)
Paula Sandas (1991) • Betsy Bechtel (1992) • Carroll Harrington (1993) • Kathleen Gwynn (1994)
Jeanne D. Kennedy (1995) • Beverly Nadine (1996) • Karen Csejtey (1997) • Susan Black (1998)
Marlene Prendergast (1999) • Lynne Johnson (2000) • Sharon Williams (2001) • Lisa Hendrickson (2002)
Pam Brandin (2003) • Jean McCown (2004) • Barbara Gross (2005) • Karen Nierenberg (2006)
Georgie Gleim (2007) • Marilyn Winkleby (2008) • Deborah Pappas (2009) • Audrey Rust (2010)
Tara VanDerveer (2011) • Rebecca Nelson (2012) • Anne Warner Cribbs (2013)
Jane Williams (2014) • Eileen Richardson (2015) • Karen Kienzle (2016) • Jenny Dearborn (2017)
Sherri Sager (2018) • Carol Larson (2019) • Judy Kleinberg (2021) • Gina Dalma (2022)
Michele Lew (2023) • Lisa Van Dusen (2024) • Mary Hughes (2025)
Past ATHENA Emerging Professional Leadership Award Recipients
Jacquetta Lannan (2014) • Stephanie Martinson (2015) • Candice Gonzalez (2016)
Anissa Leong (2017) • Elaine Uang (2018) • Lucy Wicks (2019) • Jesse Ebner (2023)
Jennifer Torai (2024) • Natalie Geise (2025)
Past ATHENA Woman of Wisdom Award Recipients
Celest Volz Ford (2019)