HOMETOWN: Laurens, S.C., now of Youngstown

HOMETOWN: Laurens, S.C., now of Youngstown
OCCUPATION: Executive director of Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority since June 2000, an agency that provides housing and social support services to low and moderate income Mahoning County residents.
EDUCATION: Bachelor's degree in business management from Hiram College, 1989; associate degree in applied business from Youngstown State University, 1971; Public Housing Management certification, from National Association of Housing and Redevelopment.
FAMILY: Husband, Richard W. Atkinson, a Youngstown city councilman; five grown children; four grandchildren.
PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: She administers an annual operating budget averaging $7.9 million, a Housing Choice Voucher program budget of $8.2 million, a capital funds budget of $3.9 million, as well as economic development, self-sufficiency, supportive services and drug elimination service funds averaging $700,000 yearly.
Under her leadership YMHA was awarded a $19.75 million Hope VI Revitalization Grant by the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development. The award, a result of YMHA's collaboration with more than 55 community partners including YSU, Humility of Mary Health Partners and the city of Youngstown, will be used to create Arlington Heights, a mixed-income and racially diverse neighborhood on Youngstown's North Side.
YMHA completed a $15 million renovation of its Rockford Village family development in 2002, along with a $7 million renovation of the Amedia Plaza high rise apartment complex for the elderly in downtown Youngstown.
COMMUNITY SERVICE: She served as chairman and vice-chairman of the YSU Board of Trustees and chaired many committees in her 11 years on the board. She is a director for Home Savings & amp; Loan, the Better Business Bureau of Youngstown, the Mahoning Valley Community Corp., the Western Reserve Division of Forum Health and the Advisory Board for the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.
A member of Tabernacle Baptist Church, she is coordinator of its Personnel and Centennial Celebration committees. She is a graduate of Leadership Youngstown, a member of Leadership Mahoning Valley Alumni, and a member of Youngstown Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
SUPPORT FOR PROFESSIONAL WOMEN: At YMHA she said 51 percent of her administrative and supervisory support team are female, and 50 percent of the agency's total workforce is female. She has mentored a number of public housing youths, including a former scholarship recipient who is now employed at YMHA.
She directs "Looking Into the Real World," a leadership and career development program for high school youths, and has always included an equal number of girls and boys in the program.
Source: ATHENA Award Committee