Marcia Kuegel Carpenter has been named the 2023 Girls Inc. Athena Award winner. Carpenter has been an educator all of her adult life, positively impacting students and inspiring them to aim for success. She served as High School to College Director at Owensboro Community and Technical College and later a Guidance Counselor at Daviess County High School. Marcia finished her career as a key player in the collaborative development of the Owensboro Innovation Academy and the formation and launching of the Life Sciences and Engineering Academies. She helped launch the Girls Only summer engineering camps to explore STEM study and careers, and has been Board President of Girls Inc., a long-time member of Impact 100, the vice-chair of both the board and the capital campaign of the Western Kentucky Botanical Garden and chair of the George and Joan Greenwell Charitable Foundation. Her impact has been felt not just locally. She was appointed to the boards of the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority, the Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation and the Kentucky Affordable Prepaid Tuition Plan where she served as chair on all three boards and played a major role in expanding student access to higher education.
