St. Cloud, Minn. – She’s a mentor, a strategic planner and an advocate for women and girls in her community, Joanne Kudrna is this year’s ATHENA Award recipient.
Selected through a nomination process hosted by the Women’s Fund of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, Joanne Kudrna has accepted the 2025 ATHENA Award. The ATHENA Award is a lifetime achievement award recognizing exceptional women leaders who inspire others to achieve excellence in their professional and personal lives. Joanne was chosen for the ATHENA Award because of her dedication to the strategic mentoring of women both personally and professionally.
The mission of the ATHENA Award is to recognize and honor Central Minnesota women who have achieved excellence in their careers and who inspire others. Criteria for selection includes demonstrates excellence, creativity, and initiative in her business or profession; provides valuable service by contributing time and energy to improve the lives of others in Central Minnesota; and actively assists women in realizing their full leadership potential.
Rick Bauerly, Founder & CEO of Granite Partners, nominated Joanne for the ATHENA award. He says Joanne’s work as a personal and professional mentor makes her an exceptional fit to receive the ATHENA Award.
“Joanne exemplifies excellence in her personal, professional, and community work. In her earnest personal work, she has mentored and empowered women and men toward their full leadership potential. In her impactful professional work, Joanne is an expert in organizational strategy, alignment, and execution, and she has guided many for-profit and non-profit boards and management teams in their strategy journeys. In her broad community work, she has served as a volunteer, advisor, donor, and fundraiser for a series of organizations that help make Central Minnesota a great place to live, work, play, and raise a family.”
Joanne Kudrna represents Granite Partners on the GEOTEK and All Flex Boards of Directors. In 20 years of prior work with Granite Partners she served as the Director of Strategy Services, supporting company boards and executive teams through detailed strategic planning processes.
In previous roles, Joanne worked as a Marketing Development Manager at Honeywell as well as a Senior Consultant at Venture Allies. Joanne holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Carthage College and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.
Aside from her professional achievements, she has volunteered her time and talents as a mentor with the Granite Mentoring Initiative and the BIG Partners program, this is a collaboration with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central MN and the St. Cloud School District. Joanne also shares her expertise in strategic planning with various nonprofit organizations and has served on the Women’s Fund.
Joanne Kudrna will be honored June 9, 2025 at Women’s Fund Presents: Dancing with our Stars, Live! The event is hosted at the College of Saint Benedict. For more event information visit: communitygiving.org/wfp25
Past recipients of the award include Susan Mackert 1988, Colman O’Connell 1989, Peg Meyer 1990, Ann Thelen 1991, Nancy Fischer 1992, Diane Gohman 1993, Diana Murphy Podawiltz 1994, Dorothy Simpson 1995, Cheryl Lightle 1996, Connie Cross 1997, Sonja Sorensen Craig 1998, Patti Gartland 1999, Colette Carlson 2000, Marj Hawkins 2001, Sandy Neutzling 2002, Betty Schnettler 2003, Barb Carlson 2004, Joan Volkmuth 2005, Patt Adair 2008, Jan Bensen 2009, Elaine Bauerly 2010, Cindy Faye Johnson 2011, Molly Renslow 2012, Maxine Barnett 2013, Patricia Welter 2014, Ann Cofell 2015, Lynn Grewing 2016, Linda Eich DesJardins 2017, Tarryl Clark 2018, Bernie Perryman 2019, Dorraine “Dorrie” Larison 2020, Debra Leigh 2021, Geri Bechtold 2022, Michelle Pape 2023, and Janelle Kendall 2024.
Since 2002, the Women’s Fund of the Central Minnesota Community Foundation has been dedicated to strengthening the community by improving the lives of women and girls. The Women’s Fund has granted nearly $1.6 million to support local programs in three core focus areas: girls ages 10-18, women experiencing adversity and elder women.
The Central Minnesota Community Foundation (CMCF) attracts and administers charitable funds for the benefit of the local community. Since 1985, CMCF has grown to $160.7 million in assets and awarded $166.7 million in grants to non-profits. The CMCF is governed by a local board of directors and is a partner of CommunityGiving, which is a network of community foundations united under a single framework to create efficiencies that maximize the impact of our donors. Collectively, CommunityGiving administers over 1,200 funds totaling nearly $240 million in assets. Learn more at communitygiving.org/cmcf
