The Athena Foundation

Inspired by the Greek Goddess Athena's wisdom, strength, and warrior spirit, The Athena Foundation was created to bring women veterans and servicemembers together through a shared sense of purpose, leadership, and community.

At the heart of Athena is a flame—a symbol of the strength, wisdom, and purpose that lives within each woman, and the power of a sisterhood that helps keep that flame burning.

Our Story

The Athena Foundation was born from a simple belief: women veterans and servicemembers need each other.

Military service creates bonds built on trust, teamwork, shared purpose, and a sense of belonging. But for many women, finding that same connection outside of military life can be challenging.

Athena was founded to bring women together again—not to recreate their military experience, but to build on the strengths, leadership, and relationships that service helped shape.

Through our Two Checkpoints to Home journey, women come together in small, squad-sized communities for transformative outdoor experiences, reflection, and continued leadership development.

What begins as a shared experience becomes something much greater: a network of women who support one another, grow together, and carry that connection into their families, workplaces, and communities.

Strong women grow. Connected women multiply their impact.

Be Part of the Athena Mission

The strength of the Athena community extends beyond the women who participate. Our supporters, partners, and advocates help make these experiences possible and carry our mission forward.

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Leadership Message

Make a Difference.

Athena started with a belief that women who have served our country deserve something more than

another transition program. They deserve a community that recognizes the strength they already

possess and gives them the space, challenge, and connection to determine what comes next.

This year, we saw that belief become something measurable.

Women stepped into the Athena experience from different branches, backgrounds, careers, families,

and seasons of life. They came with different expectations and different definitions of what they

needed. What developed was something they shared: connection.

Our assessment data tells that story. But so do the conversations around the fire, the miles traveled

together, the moments of vulnerability, the challenges overcome, and the relationships that continued

after everyone went home.

Athena is still growing. We are learning what it means to build not simply a program, but a movement

and a community capable of sustaining women long after an event ends.

The lesson we continue to come back to is also the idea that started all of this:

We need each other.

And when strong women know who they are, recognize what they bring to the table, and have a tribe

willing to walk beside them, their impact does not stop with them.

It moves outward.

— Katy Spicer, Founder

The Athena Foundation Founder Katy Spicer at the first annual women's retreat at Patrol Base Abbate.
Group of United States Marine Corps personnel in uniform outside on bleachers, with flags and rifles, including a man in a wheelchair, in front of a chain-link fence.

Katy OCS Delta Company Staff 2016

Katy Spicer, Founder & President

Katy comes from a Marine family.  She is one of four Spicer children that joined the Marine Corps.  After serving two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan and watching her brothers struggle to transition to the civilian sector after various traumatic training and combat-related events, Katy knew she wanted to try to improve post-service connection among veterans. Especially female servicemembers and veterans.  The “Make a Difference” mission comes from former scout sniper Sergeant Gary Spicer, Katy’s older brother.  While Sergeant Spicer was not excited Katy wanted to join the Marine Corps, before he passed in 2016, he did tell her one thing: “If you are going to do it, stay until you make the rank of major because no enlisted Marine is going to listen to you before you hit major. As a major, that’s when you can really make a difference.”  Sergeant Spicer passed the week that Katy became the first female Marine to take command of an all-male company at Marine Corps Officer Candidates School. Katy was a major.  While Katy is now a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves and a practicing attorney in private practice, she is driven to make a difference among female veterans and servicemembers by bringing to life The Athena Foundation.

Three soldiers in camouflage uniforms standing in front of tents in a desert area with mountains in the background.

Sergeant Gary Spicer in a training exercise in the late 90’s

Collective Excellence

  • Sarah Shadonix

    Corporate Sponsorships

  • Karen Walker

    Treasurer

  • James Collins

    Secretary