Flashback: 2009 ATHENA Public Sector Recipient Connie Phillips

Connie Phillips,director of Sojourner Center, was the 2009 ATHENA Award recipient in the Public Sector category.

Phillips, who celebrated 15 years at Sojourner Center in 2009, empowers the people who work for her and the women and children escaping the horror of domestic violence. Phillips and her staff have taken a once-condemned 28-bed home and turned it into a 280-bed, three-campus facility that is the largest shelter of its kind in the county, and which serves more than 2,800 women and children each year. When state budget cuts resulted in massive funding shortfalls, Phillips and the fundraising and financial staff of the center developed a plan to raise the additional funds through private and community donors and to base the organization’s financial plan on sustainable, multi-year giving.

Find out who will receive honors at the 25th Annual ATHENA Awards luncheon on Thursday, October 25 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa. It's easy to attend: just click here.