By Jason Sweeney

joe hu/town crier Angela McConnell gets a congratulatory hug after receiving the Athena Award, presented for her work with CSMA.

Angela McConnell, executive director of the Community School of Music and Arts at Finn Center, is the recipient of the 2005 Athena Award from the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce. She received the award March 8 at Michael’s at Shoreline.

The Athena Award is presented to an outstanding woman who has achieved the highest level of excellence in business and community, while promoting the goals of professional women.

“She inspired all of us,” said S. Carol Olson, president and CEO of the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce. “It was a great turnout from people … who wanted to honor Angela for all that she has done for the Mountain View community, for providing arts and education for all members of our community, … and for her excellent leadership.”

With a master’s degree in non-profit administration from the University of San Francisco, an undergraduate degree in psychology from Manhattanville College in New York, a love of music, management ability and exceptional skills as a fund-raiser, McConnell is a driving force behind the success of Mountain View’s CSMA.

McConnell grew up in a traditional Italian-Ukrainian family in New York. The fourth daughter in a family of six, she learned early that boys were treated differently from girls, she explained in her acceptance speech. Her mother encouraged the family girls to break with tradition.

McConnell moved to Mountain View in the early 1990s to be with her husband Rick, a business school student at Stanford University.

She was intensely homesick for New York, until she engaged with the local community and found her passion in CSMA, starting as a student in a jazz vocal class and working her way up to executive director.

CSMA is a non-profit center for arts education, which provides art and music programs for people of all ages and skill levels. Construction of the Finn Center was completed two years ago.

McConnell served as the executive director of the Finn Center building committee.

“She was instrumental in the fund raising and the building of the new facility,” Olson said.

McConnell has been active in strengthening services and opportunities available for women. As executive director of CSMA, she has increased female representation on the board of directors to 55 percent of its current membership. Seven out of eight of CSMA’s senior staff members are women as is 75 percent of the administrative staff.

“This award increases visibility for the importance of the programs of the Community School of Music and Arts at Finn Center in providing arts for all, as well as drawing attention to issues that I support: achieving balance between family and career, providing women with role models and striving for gender equality,” McConnell said.

McConnell is raising twins and recently gave birth to a baby girl.

“It is a long debate of the 21st century woman - how to do it all, raise confident, happy, altruistic and compassionate children and have a meaningful career if you want one,” McConnell said.

By presenting McConnell with the Athena Award, the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce has honored her for doing just that.