Parenting Educators

“Parenting is the most important and challenging job any of us can have. I am proud and happy to be a member of an organization that is at the forefront of promoting and nurturing healthy parent-child relationships.”

Ms. Bailey has been on a professional and personal mission of nurturing healthy family relationships for 30 years. As a Social Worker, she has held school and District-based positions as a Family & Community Engagement Coordinator, Manager of Coordinated Services and School Support Team Liaison. Currently, Pam holds a full-time position as the Director of Community & Family Engagement for Boston Plan for Excellence.

Shawne has been a Families First Parenting Educator since 2001. She has facilitated parenting workshops in a variety of settings, including transitional housing and educational centers. Shawne is currently the Senior Mentor Supervisor for Dare Family Services, where she works with specialized foster parents and children.

“As a social justice advocate and parenting educator, I wholeheartedly believe that finding the peace within yourself, and then manifesting it in your household and to those you interact with, is one avenue to creating a peaceful world.”

Yvette has spent over 30 years dedicated to volunteering and working with families and children. She is a trained mediator, social justice advocate, and workshop trainer and educator.

Carol has been leading a variety of parenting and professional development workshops for Families First since 1997. She has taught courses in many colleges and universities throughout the United States and currently balances the demands of her educational consulting practice with leading a variety of parenting and professional development workshops for Families First.

“I feel deeply committed to Families First’s mission of building secure and nurturing child-parent relationships, as this is the foundation of a loving human race.”

Clara Angelina Diaz declares her superpower to be her keen, intuitive ability to connect the dots and find solutions quickly. She is a certified masters-level life and business success coach, speaker, artist, and author.

Beth Greenawalt is the founder and owner of Parent-Solutions Parent Coaching and specializes in parent-child connection, building parental confidence, co-parenting strategies, and child-centered divorce. After an initial career in biomedical engineering, she transitioned to being a full-time mom before going back to school and developing her own parent coaching business, Parent-Solutions. Beth chose parent coaching in order to have a positive impact on children and families. Her work focuses on helping create relationships between parents and children that are based on personal values and raising children who feel seen, supported, and loved for who they uniquely are. Beth has deep empathy for the challenges parenting presents and believes that we are all capable of positive change and growth.

In addition to her work as a Parenting Educator with Families First, Yesenia volunteers with immigrants in domestic violence and homelessness cases and is a member of the Board of Directors of the United Church of Christ of Massachusetts. She previously served as Interim Director of Big Brother, Big Sister and as a social worker at a program for autistic children.

Yesenia came to the United States eleven years ago from Puerto Rico, where she studied to be a social worker for domestic violence survivors and their children. In Puerto Rico, she worked for an organization that helped place domestic violence victims in shelters. Yesenia is passionate about social justice for the environment, children, and animals. She is a mother of three and has one grandchild.

Mariana worked as the Program Director for the Educational Psychology Department at a company where she now consults on psycho-educational community interventions.

She has over 10 years of experience as an educator in Mexico—at I.T.E.S.M, Colegio Bosques, and Colegio Valle de Filadelfia, and as a college professor at Universidad Cuahtémoc. She was the Educational Psychologist Commissioner of the Official Association of Psychologists of Aguascalientes, where she implemented workshops, gave conferences, and provided training and supervision.

Mariana is a creative and compassionate human service leader with experience in education, supervision, and psychosocial interventions. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and considers herself culturally sensitive, with a strong passion for social justice, which is seen throughout her work.

Laura Quiñones was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She has held a variety of roles in the field of education, including teaching preschool-through-college-age students. She led the office of student affairs for a college, trained educators who serve English-language learners, and facilitated learning experiences for adults. She chose to become a Parenting Educator because she knows firsthand the challenges of raising a little one and the importance of having access to a community where parents can gain information and resources, bond over the joys and struggles of parenting, and grow as individuals and parents.

Daphne Walker is a Family Partner at Family Care Partnership CSA in Roxbury. Daphne has numerous certifications in infant and early childhood mental health, via the Boston Public Health Commission, DC 0-5, and the Touchpoints/Brazelton Center. Additionally, she is first in the state to have earned the international endorsement for culturally sensitive, relationship-focused practice as an early childhood Family Associate through the Alliance for the Advancement of Infant Mental Health. Daphne is thrilled to be one of the newest members of the Families First team.