SEASONED SPEAKER
Trusted Voice in Discernment
Pointing the Way to Healing and Resilience
A Call to Lead with Honesty and Courage
With four decades of experience pioneering faith-based publishing, equipping leaders, and walking with Christ through both personal and professional triumphs and trials, Athena Dean Holtz brings a message of servant leadership, resilience, and spiritual discernment.
“Athena Dean Holtz brings a rare combination of biblical wisdom and practical leadership expertise that transforms how we can approach both ministry and marketplace challenges. Her ability to weave together servant leadership principles with real-life applications creates a challenge that is both spiritually enriching and immediately actionable. As a publishing pioneer and resilience expert, she delivers insights that help leaders navigate complexity with courage and discernment. Organizations seeking to build a Christ-centered leadership culture will benefit greatly by Athena's practical, inspiring, and thought-provoking presentations.”
Carol Kent, Founder & Executive Director of Speak Up Ministries |
Speaker & Author of Speak Up with Confidence and Becoming a Woman of Influence
“Athena Holtz is one of the most authentic and genuine voices you will encounter. Her honesty and passion draw people in, but it’s her ability to connect heart-to-heart that leaves a lasting impact. Athena doesn’t just inspire—she equips her audience with practical steps to step boldly into their God-given purpose and goals. If you want your event to spark transformation and move people into action, inviting Athena to speak will be one of the best decisions you make.”
Mary Armstrong, MA, BCCC | Women’s Pastor, Calvary Community Church
ATHENA'S SIGNATURE PROGRAMS
The Ownership Standard™
Turning Accountability into Everyday Excellence
Every organization has things people walk past: a missed deadline, a frustrated customer, a broken process, or a red flag no one addresses. In The Ownership Standard™, Athena Dean Holtz challenges leaders and teams to move beyond blame and build a culture of everyday ownership through one simple principle: You don’t have to own the problem to own your response to it.
Key Takeaways:
✔ SEE IT — Recognize red flags, breakdowns, and problems others may walk past.
✔ OWN IT — Ask, What is mine to do? without confusing ownership with blame.
✔ CHANGE IT — Turn awareness, mistakes, and difficult experiences into better decisions and stronger standards.
✔ Build The Ownership Reflex™ by responding with responsibility instead of avoidance.
✔ Use practical tools like The Coffee Cup Test™ to recognize what is being quietly tolerated and strengthen a culture of excellence.
Invite this program to help your leaders and teams turn everyday ownership into lasting excellence.
No Longer Hidden
Recognizing the Battle. Reclaiming Your Voice. Walking in Freedom.
Many women love Jesus deeply yet quietly carry the weight of fear, confusion, church hurt, spiritual intimidation, or exhaustion. Some have endured toxic leadership, manipulation, betrayal, or years of believing lies about God and themselves.
In this powerful and hope-filled message, Athena Dean Holtz helps women recognize the subtle tactics of the enemy while rediscovering the unwavering faithfulness of God. Through biblical truth, personal testimony, and practical wisdom, women are equipped to walk in discernment, healing, courage, and spiritual readiness.
Key Takeaways:
✔ Recognize spiritual warfare without living in fear
✔ Heal biblically from church hurt and spiritual abuse
✔ Balance flexibility with accountability in remote settings.
Ideal for women’s conferences, church retreats, leadership gatherings, healing and restoration events, ministry training.
The Story Steward Method™
Your 7-Step Guide to Stewarding Your Memoir with Wisdom, Purpose, and Excellence
Your story may be more than a collection of memories—it may be something God has entrusted to your care. In this practical, faith-filled workshop, Athena Dean Holtz introduces a seven-step framework for identifying your memoir’s central thread, recognizing God’s faithfulness, and shaping your experiences into a clear, compelling message.
Key Takeaways:
✔ Identify the season, thread, and transformation that give your memoir focus.
✔ Discern your message and choose the moments that faithfully support it.
✔ Balance vulnerability with responsibility toward yourself, others, and your reader.
✔ Use practical techniques to create meaningful scenes and a compelling narrative.
✔ Develop your memoir with excellence and trust God with its impact.
Invite this program to help your attendees become faithful stewards of the stories God has entrusted to them.
Stewarding Our Influence
The Sacred Responsibility of Christian Leadership
Every leader points people somewhere. This program challenges Christian leaders to steward their influence carefully by examining what they endorse, platform, and recommend through the lens of Scripture.
Key Takeaways:
✔ Recognize the weight of influence and the authority a leader’s recommendation can carry.
✔ Look beyond the immediate message to discern the theology, worldview, or philosophy behind what you promote.
✔ Recognize spiritual mixture and identify ideas that sound Christian or inspirational but conflict with Scripture.
✔ Practice responsible endorsement when recommending books, speakers, music, ministries, movements, or resources.
✔ Lead with humility and discernment, including the courage to correct and redirect when needed.
Invite this program to equip leaders to faithfully steward their influence and point people toward Jesus.
Available now!
You Cannot Resist What You Do Not Recognize – Unmasking the Unseen War Threatening Our Homes, Churches, and Nation is a spiritual warfare field manual that reveals the enemy’s schemes and equips believers with biblical truth, practical strategies, and holy confidence to stand firm and live in victory.
What sets this resource apart is its striking comparison between guerrilla warfare tactics used in Vietnam and the subtle, calculated strategies of Satan. Just as the Viet Cong disguised themselves, set booby traps, and provoked soldiers into attacking one another, the enemy of our souls uses deception, fear, and division to keep believers ineffective. By drawing these parallels, the book equips readers to recognize spiritual ambushes for what they really are—and to resist with clarity instead of confusion.
PUBLISH Your Message Matters
"This is the book I wish I had BEFORE starting to write!"
Starred Reviewer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Athena Dean Holtz, Christian publishing veteran and ministry leader, is the author of PUBLISH Your Message Matters. This empowering guide blends spiritual encouragement with practical publishing strategies to help aspiring authors overcome fear, clarify their God-given message, and bring it to life with excellence. Packed with Bible-based wisdom, testimonies, and actionable steps, this book equips Christian writers, speakers, and ministry leaders to write with clarity, publish with integrity, and share their stories in ways that honor God and impact lives for eternity.
Meet Athena
Athena Dean Holtz is a Christian publisher, author, and speaker who has spent more than four decades walking alongside leaders in ministry and the marketplace. She is the founder of Redemption Press, a publishing house recognized as a Best Christian Workplace for three consecutive years. Athena is the author of several books, including No Longer Hidden: You Cannot Resist What You Do Not Recognize.
She speaks at conferences, churches, and retreats across the country, encouraging leaders to cultivate discernment, resilience, and servant-hearted leadership. Her passion is helping others recognize what may be quietly hindering their growth so they can move forward in clarity, courage, and faith.
Speaking Engagements & Partnerships
I’ve been honored to serve at a wide variety of events and organizations—sometimes as a keynote speaker or workshop leader, other times through meaningful strategic partnerships. Each opportunity has been a privilege, whether standing on a stage in person or joining audiences through digital platforms.
