In her 25 years in the field of early childhood, parenting education and family support, Donna Hunt O’Brien has always had a close connection to Parents as Teachers. After receiving her degree in child and family development at the University of Missouri-Columbia, O’Brien worked at the St. Louis Community College Child Development Laboratory for eight years. There she had the opportunity to mentor college students, learn from master teachers, study and implement different approaches to early education, and became a certified Parents as Teachers parent educator. She continued her graduate study in child and adult education at Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville. Soon after, O’Brien became adjunct faculty teaching a number of early childhood courses, while leading accreditation teams and coordinating a family child care quality assurance program for the state of Missouri.
Since coming to the Parents as Teachers National Center, O’Brien has served in many roles. As a national trainer O’Brien has instructed hundreds of early childhood professionals. As child care training coordinator, O’Brien supported the implementation of Parents as Teachers in child care settings. She has been the principal writer for major Parents as Teachers curricula and, as training manager, developed training manuals and procedures for training support, as well as mentored a cadre of trainers and training teams nationally and internationally.
Currently, O’Brien directs the training of thousands of parent educators worldwide, oversees the development and updating of Parents as Teachers’ trainings and curricula, and works to sustain and grow Parents as Teachers through new partnerships and innovative programming.