Helping people change their lives and succeed is the goal of the three finalists for the Lima Allen County Chamber's Athena Award.
Jessika Phillips says she surrounds herself with powerful women. In fact, 80% of her team at NOW Marketing Group are women who are leaders in their own right. Whether on the job or volunteering out in the community, Phillips and her team are leading by example. She says it was the teachers at Lima City Schools and her aunt that were the people who inspired her. Now Phillips is passing on that same enterprising spirit to her team and her daughters.
“So, I have three teenage girls that watch everything that I do, not just what I say,” says Phillips. “So I am really hoping that the early years, when they were working alongside of me at the office, watching the humble beginnings, to growing NOW with team members across the U.S., and clients all across the U.S., they are seeing that if you have a dream and you are passionate about it and you work hard, that you can get to where you want to go.”
Sally Windle went from inspiring students in the classroom at Lima City Schools to inspiring budding and professional artists as the executive director of ArtSpace/Lima. Windle says it was her parents, sisters and brothers, and other family members that instilled in her the sense of integrity that she lives by. But when she got into education, she found another source of inspiration.
“There's a lot of great educators and that's where my passion was, so I learned from them,” says Windle. “But I have been really fortunate in this community to have tremendous role models for me, to look at, emulate, and hope I spread that continuously.”
Keith Horner says when it comes to empowering others, it starts by recognizing their talent and encouraging them that they can succeed. After 32 years in education, the superintendent at Apollo Career Center has inspired many students in staff in the different school districts where he worked. He credits his parents for teaching him how to work and treat people well.
“My parents owned a small business and I saw my mother who was a leader,” says Horner. “I have been surrounded by her my whole life obviously, also strong females in my life, my sisters, my wife, my daughters. The fact that, whether female or male doesn’t matter to me, if they have leadership potential, and they are very strong people, smart, courageous so I have just looked at it from that approach. They have encouraged me through the whole thing. I have been very lucky.”
These are the finalist for the 2022 Athena Award.
