Welcome to Athena!

What does the world you want to live in look like? What do you wish you could change about the world as it is right now? At Athena, whatever it is — climate change, hunger, mis- and disinformation online, all the -isms that keep people from reaching their full potential, or something else entirely — you can do something about it, and you can do it knowing the power of collective action. 

At Athena, we learn by doing, building on our experiences in the classroom with Barnard’s world-class faculty. 

We are creative, collaborative, and resilient, because few challenges worth addressing are addressed through a single approach, by a single person, or in a single try.

We plan for impact — both the impact we want to have and the impact we don’t. As we work to build a better world, we ask: Who might be helped by these ideas and who might be harmed by them, and what can we do to prevent harm? And we’re mindful of the impact of this work on ourselves. (Burnout is not an inevitable side effect of good, hard work.)

We share our work, so others can join in, benefit from our ideas and improve on what we’ve created — because leadership is about mobilizing a community.

We welcome artists, activists, entrepreneurs, policy wonks, and everyone in between. Interested in joining us? Learn about what we offer here.