ATHENA

The Rev. Martha Touchton is the 2022
Rutherford ATHENA Award recipient, Rutherford CABLE announced.

The ATHENA Award recognizes an individual who
excels in her profession, gives back to the community, and helps raise up other
leaders, especially women. Touchton was honored along with 11 other ATHENA
nominees and seven Young Professional nominees at a luncheon held April 29 at
Embassy Suites in Murfreesboro

Touchton said in her ATHENA essay that she
represents the ATHENA Leadership model — live authentically, build
relationships, giving back, foster collaboration, courageous acts, life-long
learning, fierce advocacy, and celebration and joy — as a female member of the
clergy.

“Only a handful of female clergy are employed
in Rutherford County, thus every week I encounter someone for whom I am the
first female minister they have ever met,” Touchton said. “Often I must defend
my gifts, call, and ordination with kindness and grace. It is by using the
ATHENA attributes of relationships, collaboration, and courageous acts that I
am able to serve as an effective leader in my personal and professional life.”

Touchton serves as the Minister of Education
at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, where she directs Christian education,
adult, children, and family ministries, and leads in worship, congregational
care, and spiritual formation. Touchton earned her bachelor’s degree at Westmar
College in accounting and Christian education before completing her master’s
degree in religious education at Scarritt Graduate School. 

In 1999, she was ordained Deacon, authorized
to create ministries of compassion, service, and justice. Outside of church and
family, Touchton is involved with the P.E.O. Sisterhood, Read To Succeed,
Lionheart Chamber Orchestra, Habitat for Humanity, and the Ditsy Dots women’s
trio. 

“While it is often a great challenge for
female clergy to foster meaningful relationships outside of their church, being
a member of the P.E.O. Sisterhood affords me an opportunity to develop
much-needed, long-lasting friendships,” Touchton said, exemplifying how she
lives up to the ATHENA ideals. “At home, my husband and four children show me
every day what God’s love and grace looks like. I am blessed with life-giving
and faith-building relationships that inspire creativity, encourage
collaboration, and incite courage in every endeavor.”

Touchton was honored along with the 2022
Athena class: Leslie Akins, Donna Anderson, Laura A. Bohling, Stephanie
Brackman, Mylikia Franklin, Dr. Diana Constanza Kooper, Mariah Phillips, Jane
Sharp, Michelle Shrader, Dr. Ellen Slicker and Lori Williams.

“The ATHENA program showcases the caliber of
professional, committed leaders we are fortunate to have here in our community.
These women excel in their careers, give back to their community and help
develop other leaders making our community a better place to live,” said Lori
Cutler, 2022 Rutherford ATHENA chair.