The 2004-05 ATHENA® Award recipient has a passion for encouraging and educating women. Ms. Baker has volunteered her time and talents for many years to serve as Director of Women’s Ministries, where she leads women to service in the church and trains them to be strong, Christian leaders. She is also President and creator of FriendshipsOftheHeart.com, an internet based business created to encourage, enrich and honor the friendships of women. Ms. Baker owns and operates auto service centers. Understanding that car repairs can be intimidating for women customers, she takes a personal interest in educating women about car systems, repairs and maintenance through Ladies Car Care Clinics and seminars. She continuously teaches, trains, stretches and encourages the women who work for her. A close long-time friend once stated, “She brings out the best in me and makes me want to do my very best”. The automotive aftermarket is not typically a women’s business, but she has opened the opportunities for women in her company by hiring female Customer Service Representatives and training and promoting several of them to management positions.

Shelly Baur
2003 Athena Award Recipient

As a woman business owner for over 17 years (One Source Marketing, One Source Associates educational consulting), Shelley Baur has helped build women for life and leadership through mentoring, coaching and facilitating their self-discovery and personal mastery so critical to leadership development. Hundreds of women from Canada to the Dominican Republic have benefited from her public and proprietary learning experiences. She designed and presents "Living on Purpose: Tools for building the Life You Really Want" and "(Ethics &) Integrity-Based Communications". She also facilitates Brian Tracy's "Phoenix Seminar for Maximum Achievement" and a catalog of interpersonal, communications, team-building, life and leadership skills training from Development Dimensions International.

Community Service includes:

• Greater Memphis Chapter, National Association of Women business Owners - founding member, membership director, VP, President
• Memphis Chapter, Sales & Marketing Executives International - first woman president
• Sales & Marketing Executives International - regional VP and board member
• Memphis Advertising Federation - board member, treasurer
• First woman President Of Guardsmark, Inc.
• Certified Facilitator
• "Milestones" career transitioning
• Development Dimensions International
• "The Phoenix Seminar for Maximum Achievement - Brian Tracy International
• FastTrac I and II for new and growing businesses - Entrepreneurial Education Foundation
• "Human Beings More, " Franklin-Covey Time Management and Nikken Leadership Development, Nikken University
• Leadership Memphis graduate (1991) - class coordinator, committees: diversity, social, education co-chair
• Memphis Symphony Ball Women's Committee of Fifty - founding member
• University of Memphis - President's Club; Dean's Advisory Council, Fogelman College of Business and Economics
• Memphis Epilepsy Foundation - board
• American Lung Association of West Tennessee - board
• Personal Empowerment Speakers Bureau - founder
• Various arts organizations - board, patron, guarantor
• YMCA - Nominating Committee

Lorine Cady
2002 Athena Award Recipient

By her example in leadership positions, Ms. Cady has uplifted the role of women in our area and has inspired others to take a more active part. She was a driving force behind the birth of Southaven . Ms. Cady has also served as alderman for the City for 17 years, beginning in 1985. One of the founders of the House of Grace, she has helped battered women escape their tormentors while learning their worth and increasing their self-esteem. Ms Cady has also served on the Board of Sav-a-life, later known as the HOPE Center , an organization which provided Christian counseling, support and an alternative to abortion. She has worked on the Springfest and has served on committees with the Southaven Chamber of Commerce for over 13 years. She is very active in her church where she has taught Sunday School for 14 years, served on the Benevolence Committee and on the pulpit committee. She was the Founder of the Northwest Fibromyalgia Support Group and served for 2 years as "Judge Heartless" for the DeSoto County Heart Fund. She is also a member of the DeSoto Count Prayer Breakfast Board .

Community Service includes:

• DeSoto County Economic Development Council Legislative Committee
• Mississippi Women in Municipal Government (Past President, twice)
• Executive Committee, North Delta Planning commission (past Vice President and treasurer)
• Mississippi Municipal League, Board of Directors
• United Daughters of the Confederacy (past President)
• Southaven Chamber of Commerce
• 51 & Main Association
• Springfest Committee