Leadership Athens County Celebrates 20 Years of Community Leadership and Connection

Dani Esperanza • May 26, 2026

On Thursday, May 21, community members gathered at the Athens Armory to celebrate the graduates of the 2026 Leadership Athens County Flagship and Youth cohorts, honor 20 years of Leadership Athens County, and officially launch the Leadership Athens County Alumni Association.


Hosted by the Athens County Foundation, the evening reflected the program’s long-standing commitment to cultivating local leadership rooted in connection, collaboration, and service. Over the past two decades, Leadership Athens County has brought together emerging and established leaders from across the region to deepen their understanding of Athens County, strengthen relationships, and develop the skills needed to create meaningful community impact.


In her opening remarks, Athens County Foundation Executive Director Kerry Pigman reflected on the program’s origins and enduring purpose.


“Leadership Athens County exists because people chose to invest in each other and in this community,” Pigman shared. “Tonight may represent the end of your program, but it is also an invitation. An invitation to stay engaged.”


Throughout the evening, speakers returned to a common theme: leadership in Athens County is built through relationships, trust, and a shared commitment to community.


Communications and Engagement Manager Emily Prince, a member of the very first Leadership Athens County cohort in 2006, reflected on how the program shaped her own leadership journey and deepened her sense of belonging in Athens County.


“Leadership Athens County helped me to find the opportunities I needed to be who I want to be,” Prince said. “I want to be a person who forges a path, clears the rocks, and levels the roots. I want the next generation’s road to be smoother than mine so that they can run farther.”


Graduates from both the adult and youth cohorts shared personal introductions of one another throughout the ceremony, highlighting the relationships, growth, and mutual support developed over the year. Their reflections emphasized the diversity of leadership styles and experiences represented across Athens County, from educators, nonprofit professionals, artists, healthcare workers, and advocates to students already stepping into leadership roles within their schools and communities.


Leadership Athens County facilitator Dani Esperanza reminded attendees that the program is grounded in an asset-based approach to leadership.


“The leaders we need are already here,” Esperanza said during the commencement ceremony. “We don’t need a ‘hero’ leader who will save the day and come up with all the solutions. We need to identify our individual and collective strengths, harness them to make change, and support one another throughout the process.”


The event also marked the official launch of the Leadership Athens County Alumni Association, an initiative designed to strengthen connections among the program’s more than 400 alums and create opportunities for continued collaboration, mentorship, service, and learning.


Speaking during closing remarks, Leadership Athens County alumna Mallory Swaim reflected on the importance of sustaining those connections long after graduation.


“The greatest strength of Athens County has never been a building, an institution, or a single organization,” Swaim said. “It has always been the people. The people are willing to invest in one another. The people willing to stay engaged.”


The evening also included fundraising efforts to support the Leadership Athens County Fund, which is helping to seed an endowment dedicated to supporting Leadership Athens County Youth in perpetuity and to ensuring that future young leaders can participate fully regardless of financial barriers.


As the evening concluded, graduates, alums, families, and community partners celebrated not only the accomplishments of the 2026 cohorts but also the growing network of leaders who continue to shape the future of Athens County together.


Nomination forms are open for both the Flagship and Youth Programs:

Nominate

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Photos by Rich-Joseph Facun www.facun.com

Pull up a Chair: September Newsletter

By Emily Prince • September 17, 2026
After the Storm: What Community Resilience Looks Like

Stacy Strauss is ACF's new Director of Finance and Administration

By Emily Prince • September 1, 2026
Please join us in welcoming our new Director of Finance and Administration, Stacy Strauss. Stacy looks forward to using her skills to strengthen our community! She brings energy, creativity, and a thoughtful approach to her work, along with a genuine ability to bring people together around shared goals. Her experience spans financial management, fundraising and grant writing, program development, business strategy, and developing materials that tell a clear, compelling story.  Just as importantly, she enjoys helping others grow. She has experience leading and training teams, building collaborative cultures, developing recruitment strategies, and finding practical, creative solutions to complicated challenges. Whether working with colleagues, community partners, or other stakeholders, she builds relationships rooted in trust, communication, and a shared commitment to advancing good ideas.

Fall Grant Applications Open

By Shayne Lopez • August 28, 2026
Athens County's greatest asset is its people. Every day, neighbors, organizations, and local leaders bring skill, creativity, and deep knowledge of this place to the work of building a stronger community. Our grantmaking invests in those strengths, because the best solutions are already growing here, led by the people who call Athens County home. Our grantmaking builds on the strengths already here by investing in the initiatives, people and organizations, relationships, skills, and ideas working to address longstanding challenges and pursue extraordinary opportunities. The deadline for applications for the Senior Fund has been extended to October 18, 2026! The Athens Jaycees Senior Fund The Athens Jaycees Senior Fund supports organizations and programs working to improve the lives of older adults (60+) in Athens County. This year, approximately $65,000 is available through ACF’s Fall Grant Cycle. We want to encourage organizations to think broadly about what supporting people as they age could look like. The Jaycees fund has deep local roots. In 2014, Housing for Athens Senior Residents donated $1 million to the Athens County Foundation to establish the fund following the sale of Heritage Commons Senior Housing. Heritage Commons itself began as an Athens Jaycees project in 1981, created to expand housing opportunities for local seniors. To date, the Jaycees Senior Fund has awarded more than $415,000 to support programs and services benefiting older adults across Athens County. What could an Athens Jaycees Senior Fund project look like? We’re inviting applicants to consider how their work could help make Athens County a community where people can remain active, connected, independent, and supported as they age. Projects might address housing, transportation, community and health services, social connection, healthy living, accessibility, caregiver support, or other needs and opportunities identified by older adults. The Jaycees Senior Fund intentionally remains flexible so that organizations can bring forward ideas grounded in what they are seeing and hearing in their communities. If your organization has an idea that could improve the experience of aging in Athens County, we encourage you to consider ACF’s Fall Grant Cycle to access the Jaycees Senior Fund. The deadline for grant requests supporting senior-related programs has been extended to October 18, 2026. For more information, please visit athensfoundation.org/grants. -------- If you’d like guidance in developing or strengthening an age-friendly program idea, we encourage you to reach out directly to Amy Lipka with Age-Friendly Athens County at alipka@athenspublichealth.org. The Athens City-County Health Department will also sponsor Healthy Aging Community Grants in early 2027.