The Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Women’s Business Council recently presented the ATHENA, ATHENA Young Professional, and the first Organizational ATHENA Awards during its Annual ATHENA Awards Celebration at Samuels Theatre, Cedar Crest College in Allentown.

The prestigious ATHENA Award, presented annually by the Chamber since 1981, actively shares ATHENA International’s mission to support, develop and honor women leaders, inspire women to achieve their full potential, and create balance in leadership worldwide. The ATHENA and ATHENA Young Professional Awards honor individuals who demonstrate excellence, creativity and initiative in their business or profession, who provide valuable service by contributing time and energy to improve the quality of life for others in the community and who actively assist other women in realizing their full leadership potential.

This year the chamber added the ATHENA Organizational Award which recognizes businesses and organizations that support, develop and honor women leaders.

ATHENA Award honoree Laura McHugh is a two-time Emmy-award winning journalist and communications executive with a passion for telling the Lehigh Valley’s stories.

Laura serves her community as associate vice president of marketing and communications for United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, where she has worked since 2017. In this role, she shines a light on the region’s greatest challenges and the solutions-focused work of United Way and its partners to address their root causes. Laura has more than 15 years of reporting, producing and hosting experience in both commercial and public television news, including covering forest fires in Montana and tornadoes in Kansas. From 2008 to 2017, Laura produced and hosted local programs and documentaries for PBS39, where she created FOCUS, WLVT’s award-winning weekly news magazine program. Additionally, she has worked as a freelance producer and host for Service Electric TV2 and as an adjunct professor of communications for Cedar Crest College.

The ATHENA Young Professional Award honoree Natasha Ljuljic is a passionate HR talent and diversity leader. She is responsible for managing diversity, inclusion and belonging initiatives globally as Air Products positions itself to be the most diverse industrial gas company in the world. Natasha is dedicated to promoting a diverse an inclusive workplace where people feel they belong and know they matter. Her body of work includes the oversight, development and creation of strategic programming and resources that support the organization in their diversity growth journey and leading a powerful network of Employee Resource Groups. She has been an integral leader in championing several key initiatives that have shifted organizational culture as the company works to achieve its ambitious diversity targets set for 2025.

She is equally committed to serving and giving back to the community. Natasha currently sits on the board of Historic Bethlehem Museums and Sites, Valley Youth House, and Rising Tide. She serves as a member of the D&I Council for LINC (Lehigh Valley Inter-Regional Networking and Connecting Consortium), a member of the African American Business Leaders Council’s events committee and is a member of the Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce’s DEI Collaborative.

ATHENA Organizational Award honoree Olympus Corporation of the Americas is passionate about creating customer-driven solutions for the medical, life sciences, and industrial equipment industries. For more than 100 years, Olympus has focused on making people’s lives healthier, safer and more fulfilling by helping to detect, prevent, and treat disease; furthering scientific research; and ensuring public safety. Olympus is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with more than 35,000 employees worldwide in nearly 40 countries and regions. Olympus Corporation of the Americas, a wholly owned subsidiary of Olympus Corporation, is headquartered in Center Valley, Pennsylvania, USA, and employs more than 5,500 employees throughout locations in North and South America.