2025 ATHENA Awards Reception

Description

The ATHENA Leadership Award is inspired by the goddess of Greek mythology known for her strength, courage, wisdom, and enlightenment. The ATHENA Leadership Award is presented to individuals honored for professional excellence, community service, and for actively assisting women in their attainment of professional excellence and leadership skills. The ATHENA Young Professional Leadership Award is a natural extension of the ATHENA Leadership Award and is presented to emerging leaders across professional sectors for exemplary leadership. The Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce is honored to continue presenting the ATHENA Awards in Greater Kansas City.

Congratulations to the 2025 ATHENA and Young ATHENA Honorees!!

ATHENA Honoree | Christine Kemper 

Christine founded Kemper & Company, LLC, following her early endeavors in government, politics, entertainment and strategic communications. Her customer research and marketing consultancy advised local, national and global brands starting in 2002. She is co-founder of The Collectors Fund and The Kansas City Collection, two enterprises that invest in art and build markets for artists, as well as YEP, an internship and scholarship organization focused on identifying and nurturing entrepreneurship among high school students.

The focus of her community work has largely been women- and student-focused. She has served in leadership roles for dozens of regional nonprofit organizations, including the Women’s Foundation, Women’s Employment Network, WIN for KC, the WWI Museum and Memorial, DeLaSalle Education Center, and University Academy Charter School. 

Her current passion is in her role as Founder and Board Chair of Kansas City Girls Preparatory Academy, Missouri’s only all-girls, college-bound, public charter school, which opened in August of 2019. Located in a traditionally underserved community, the school’s mission is to prepare young women to use their voices, succeed academically and to lead productive, meaningful lives. As leader of this endeavor, Kemper has helped to raise nearly $30 million to advance the purpose of the program. 

With a reputation for strong academic and emotional growth, KC Girls Prep has just started its 7th year of operation, serving 110 scholars in 5th-8th grade girls and another 38 girls in its KC Girls Leadership Institute (KCGLI). The innovative KCGLI program was created in 2024 to support scholars through high school and into college. With leadership development, study abroad, college and scholarship application support, and a deep, ongoing connection to the KCGAP sisterhood, KCGLI delivers on the mission and vision at the heart of the school’s founding. Kemper’s intense focus on this school is inspired by her belief that empowering young women lifts families, communities, and ultimately, the world.

ATHENA Young Professional Leadership Honoree | DePrice Taylor 

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, DePrice is the product of resiliency and growth; not the circumstances and roadblocks meant to impede her future but the determination to overcome them. With more than a decade of experience driving youth development, strategic initiatives, and community partnerships, DePrice currently serves as the Executive Director of Community Relations for the Kansas City Current. In this role, she spearheads the club’s community engagement strategy, builds and sustains meaningful relationships with corporate and nonprofit stakeholders and oversees impactful programming and player civic engagement efforts.

A proud first-generation college graduate and former MIAA athlete, DePrice earned a Bachelor of Science in Social Work and a Master of Science in Health, Human Performance, and Recreation from Pittsburg State University. She has been recognized as a Kansas City Business Journal NextGen Leader (2023), Starland News Community Bulder to Watch (2023), Heartland Black Chamber of Commerce MVP (2024), and alumna of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce Centurions Leadership Program. 

DePrice’s commitment to service is reflected in her leadership beyond her professional role. DePrice serves on the Win for KC Advisory Board, Black Excellence KC Board, Pittsburg State Alumni Association, and as a Commissioner for Kansas City Parks & Recreation, appointed by Mayor Quinton Lucas. 

Driven by a deep commitment to mentorship, DePrice actively empowers young people, inspiring the next generation to thrive and lead with purpose, believing that despite your circumstances, anything is possible with faith, belief in yourself, and hard work.