NC Parenting Education Network

The North Carolina Parenting Education Network (NCPEN) is working to build the field of parenting education in the state with a focus on partnerships between parents and child care providers, teachers, and parent educators. Working together we can help each child reach his or her own potential! NCPEN is an unfunded collaborative of parenting education organizations and agencies.

Bylaws | Current Work| Upcoming Conferences

Contact us

NCPEN Officers (effective 7-09):

Melissa Lewis, Chair

Peggy Kernodle, Secretary
Peggy holds a BS in Family & Consumer Science Education from UNC-Greensboro and an MS in FCS with a focus on Adult Education & Adult Value Systems. She has been an FCS &/ 4H Youth Development agent in North and South Carolina. She has taught Infant/Early Childhood Development at NC Central University and has been involved in education of parents or providers for 30 years. Her part-time position with Durham County Extension involves parenting guidance for at-risk families, Relatives raising relatives and court-mandated parents. She has a NC teaching license, is certified with American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences and is a Certified Parent Educator-Level 1.

Phyllis D'Agostino, Treasurer
Since 2002, Phyllis D'Agostino has been the Parent Education and Infant Mortality Reduction Program Coordinator at the Forsyth County Department of Public Health. Phyllis has been a parent educator for over 20 years and in 2003, she became a North Carolina Certified Parent Educator Level 1. Graduating from Kent State University with a Masters in Education and Educational Specialist degree in Community Counseling, Phyllis is a certified Post Partum Doula through DONA (Doulas of North America) International, and she is working on becoming a Birth Doula through DONA and her Lamaze Childbirth Educator Certification.

Stephanie Jones, Credentialing Chair
Stephanie is a North Carolina Certified Parent Educator Level 1. She serves as the Program Coordinator for a Graduate Certificate Program North Carolina State University where she also provides support to faculty in the Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) graduate degree program. Prior to receiving a masters degree in HDFS from NCSU in 2007, she worked as a Parent Educator with the Cooperative Extension Service in Brunswick County.

Karen DeBord, Web Editor
Dr. Karen DeBord has been with North Carolina Cooperative Extension at NC State University since 1995 and founded the NC Parenting Education Network. Previous to her work in North Carolina, she was an Extension faculty member at Virginia Tech and also with the University of Missouri. She retired from NC State January 2010 but is serving as the Director of Graduate Programs at North Carolina State University for a Master's Degree in Family Life and Parenting Education through May 2010. She is North Carolina Certified Parent Educator Level 1.