The ATHENA Awards

Joseph A. Floreano Convention Center

The Women’s Council, a Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce affiliate, proudly brings the ATHENA Awards to the Greater Rochester Area each year, recognizing the success of outstanding businesswomen who excel in their profession, who are community leaders, and who mentor other women personally and professionally. The ATHENA Awards consist of the ATHENA Award®, ATHENA Young Professional Award®, ATHENA Organizational Award®, and are the premier professional awards that acknowledge the success and accomplishments of our area’s most outstanding women leaders and up-and-coming leaders.

Click here to view the list of all finalists for the 2024 ATHENA International Award®, the 2024 ATHENA International Young Professional Award®, and the 2024 ATHENA International Organizational Award®.

The ATHENA Award® recognizes women at the pinnacle of their careers. These are women leading businesses and organizations throughout the Greater Rochester Area and setting the course for the next generation of leaders to come. ATHENA women are CEOs, CFOs, presidents, partners, executive directors, and more. 

The ATHENA Young Professional Award®, launched by Women’s Council in Rochester in 2015, celebrates emerging female business leaders between the ages of 30-45. ATHENA Young Professionals are poised to take over high-level leadership roles and demonstrate that they are women-to-watch!

The ATHENA Organizational Award®, launched by Women's Council in Rochester in 2018, recognizes businesses and organizations that actively promote the ATHENA mission of supporting, developing and honoring women leaders, inspiring women to achieve their full potential—creating balance in leadership worldwide.

The ATHENA Awards are given out each January at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center. Nearly 800 people attend each year and learn more about the ATHENA, ATHENA Young Professional, and ATHENA Organizational Awards finalists before the year’s overall recipient for each award is announced.

A portion of all proceeds from the luncheon go to sponsor the Women’s Council’s Young Women of Distinction Awards, which recognizes outstanding female high school seniors from the Greater Rochester Area.


Sponsorship and partnership opportunities are available for both the ATHENA Awards and the Young Women of Distinction Awards by contacting our Chamber Affiliate Liaison Cassidy Franklin at Cassidy.Franklin@GreaterRochesterChamber.com or clicking the button to the right.