County Supervisor Dana Pellebon, the 2023 ATHENA Award recipient, has made her mark in nonprofits and government service as an advocate for the homeless and for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. Her selection was announced March 14 at the annual ATHENA Award Celebration, held at Girl Scouts of Wisconsin–Badgerland in Madison.
The ATHENA Award Celebration, a program of The Business Forum, honors both women and men who have achieved excellence in their profession or life’s work, devoted time and effort in their communities to improve the quality of life for others, and actively helped women realize their full leadership potential.
Pellebon, who also serves as executive director of RCC Sexual Violence Resource Center–Dane County, accepted the honor by recognizing her grandmother as her foundational rock as she was growing up in a military family that moved from state to state, and her autistic, college-bound son, who taught her how to fight every day and made her a better mother and person.
They also taught her that whatever obstacles she might have, that she could not only do things for herself, but she could help the people around her. “Everything that I do is meant to uplift the people who are around me because I can’t build a community by myself,” she told the audience gathered inside the Girl Scout Leadership Center. “That community has to be the people that are with me and around me, to build up the women, the men, the nonbinary folks, and everyone around us to also reach what success means for them.”
Pellebon began her professional career with Wisconsin Management Co., a property management organization. She quickly advanced through the ranks and used the knowledge she gained to help create The Second Chance Apartment Program through the YWCA, serving as a trainer for the 15 years the program was funded and working to assist homeless and formerly homeless women, many of whom were fleeing domestic violence.
She developed a passion for addressing homelessness, which led her to a second career at Porchlight Inc., where she rose to become director of housing and operations and served in this role for most of her seven-year tenure. Pellebon was a key member of Porchlight’s executive team, assisting in the creation of the organization’s strategic plan and policies that advanced the organization’s work to reduce homelessness in Dane County.
“Anyone who has ever had the great fortune to meet Dana Pellebon learns within just moments of connecting with her how incredibly creative, determined, and visionary she is,” states Shannon Barry, executive director of Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (DAIS), one of four people who nominated Pellebon for the ATHENA Award. “Not only has Dana devoted her professional life to serving some of our community’s most vulnerable and marginalized populations in new and revolutionary ways, but she is also a fierce advocate and volunteer within various spaces who is committed to dismantling systems [that] uphold oppression of all kinds, particularly oppression of women, BIPOC people, and the LGBTQIA community.”
After serving for a year as the organization’s senior director of client services, Pellebon has held the executive director position at the RCC: Sexual Violence Resource Center since August 2020. Under Pellebon’s direction, the center has been transformed and programs have evolved to meet the complex needs of sexual violence victims and survivors, including the rapid expansion of therapy and mental health services.
An example of this is Pellebon’s work to expand the Safe Bars program in Dane County, which helps bars, restaurants, and other alcohol-serving establishments create safe, welcoming spaces for patrons and staff. This includes training staff on bystander intervention skills and de-escalation techniques to prevent sexual assaults — particularly in the downtown and UW–Madison campus areas.
According to Barry, there literally is no space in which Pellebon exists where she isn’t working to uplift other women — particularly younger women. In the nonprofit community, Pellebon serves on various boards, including Freedom Inc., Urban Triage, and the Outreach LGBTQ Community Center.
An elected official serving as the County Board supervisor for District 33, Pellebon was appointed by the National Association of Counties to the County Officials Advancing Racial Equity (CORE) Justice Network, a cohort of 15 elected officials to pilot and advance programs designed to eliminate racial disparities in the criminal justice system and advance equitable practices.
In addition, Pellebon is a long-standing member of the Dane County Commission on Sensitive Crimes and chairs the Dane County Sexual Assault Resource Team. She is also a part of the leadership circle for the Coordinated Community Response (CCR) to Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Task Force.
Asked how her life experiences affect her county board service, she notes her ability to connect with people who have been marginalized. “My life experiences allow me to bring a perspective that may not necessarily be available on the board,” she explains. “So, not just life experience, but also experience in business and experience with populations that historically have been excluded.”
Also active in the local arts scene, Pellebon has led in the theatre and artistic spaces, working to advance works by female artists as well as artists who identify as BIPOC or as part of the LGBTQ+ community. In the past, she volunteered as the managing director of Mercury Players Theatre and co-founded the first Black theater festival in Wisconsin. She directed Transaster, a short film written by a local trans youth, which was accepted into the Wisconsin Film Festival in 2022, and she is part of the team influencing and determining theatrical programming for the new Center for Black Excellence and Culture, which is scheduled to open in 2024.
Raising the bar
Also nominated for the 2023 ATHENA award were seven others who have made significant contributions to their industry, to the Madison community, and to the advancement of women. They are Ginger Auchter, director of scientific and engineering talent for Carex Consulting Group; Rachellee Bly, principal at Kennedy Elementary School in Madison; Rebecca Carlin, executive director, Wisconsin Youth Company; Shar Hermanson, director of strategy for Mid-West Family Madison; Zach Ketterhagen, founder of the Self-Leadership Collective LLC; Rachel Snethen, director of development coordination for Gorman & Company; and estate planning attorney Dera Johnsen-Tracy, partner and co-founder, Horn & Johnsen SC–Estate Planning Center of Wisconsin.
The accomplishments and contributions of each nominee were presented by NBC-15 evening anchor Leigh Mills, who once again served as the emcee for the awards ceremony. Those in attendance also learned The Business Forum has thus far raised in excess of $400,000 to provide scholarships to women.
