The Pennsylvania Parent Involvement and Resource Center employs a diverse and well-qualified staff that plans, coordinates and provides services to urban, rural and suburban communities across Pennsylvania.
Linda Dolan, Director
E-mail: ldolan@csc.csiu.org
Phone: 717.763.1661 ext. 137
Linda has over 30 years experience in the education field, which includes over 20 years as a principal and central office administrator in urban, rural and suburban school districts. She also served as an administrator in an intermediate unit. Prior to her administrative positions, Linda worked as a teacher. Linda received her BS and MS in Education from Millersville University and her Doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in Educational Leadership and Curriculum and Instruction.
Becky Blue, Early Childhood and Family Development Program Manager
E-mail: bblue@csc.csiu.org
Phone: 717.763.1661 ext. 162
With nearly 30 years experience in the field of early childhood education and early childhood program delivery and administration, Becky provides guidance for quality program implementation and the delivery of high quality trainings. She has management and supervisory responsibilities for training and technical assistance of Parents as Teachers programs, Parent Child Home Program grantees, and Children’s Trust Fund grantees. Becky holds two Master degrees: one in Early Childhood Education and one in Instructional Technology. Becky has been certified as a Parents as Teachers (PAT) National Trainer since 1993. She has served as Pennsylvania’s PAT State Systems Leader since 2001.
Karen Shanoski, Family-School-Community Partnerships Project Manager
E-mail: kshanoski@csc.csiu.org
Phone: 717.763.1661 ext. 139
Karen brings twenty-seven years of experience in both public and private human service sectors. Her current work focuses on family-school-community partnerships with an emphasis on effective family engagement. It includes development of training and tools that support cross systems work and meaningful participation of consumers, parents and residents in community collaborative partnerships. Her work experiences include: director of a private non-profit that helped low income people meet basic human needs, a planner with a county children and youth agency, and a home visitor. She has been an active community volunteer since high school when she was an advocate for people with mental retardation through today in her service as a school board director. She holds a BSW and a Master’s degree in Management, from Pennsylvania State University.
Ines Vega Educational Partnerships Coordinator
E-mail: ivega@csc.csiu.org
Phone: 717.763.1661 ext. 137
Inés brings an array of 10 years experience in the human service field, private and public elementary school in both rural and urban sectors. While spending most of her childhood in Spanish Harlem, New York and continuing her education in Puerto Rico, her life-long experiences have granted her with the ability to understand and relate to the language barriers and cultural challenges of non- or limited-English speaking students. Inés is a former ESL teacher and family therapist. While working for the Pennsylvania Migrant Education Program Inés portrayed the roles of a student and family advocate, team leader of student services and a parent coordinator. She earned a B.A in Elementary Education with a minor in special education and early childhood from the Interamerican University of Puerto Rico and a Master’s degree in Human Services from Lincoln University.
Kathy Kurpeikis Education Specialist
E-mail: kkurpeikis@ADI.org
Phone: 412.487.8517
Kathy has spent the last ten years working in comprehensive school reform. Other professional experiences include elementary school teacher, and assistance in establishing a school district department for professional development. Her work in school reform included advising school teams and parent councils; training district administrators, principals, teachers and parents in research-based improvement strategies; and analyzing data to direct and increase program implementation. She has written and presented educational materials for program delivery and specific needs of individual school communities. Currently, she works as an Education Specialist for the PA PIRC to help establish and enrich partnerships between families, schools and communities in Western Pennsylvania.
Germaine Edwards, Ph.D. Education Specialist
E-mail: germaine.edwards@temple.edu
Phone: 215.204.6863
Germaine L. Edwards, Ph.D. is an Education Specialist with PA PIRC. Dr. Edwards provides technical assistance to schools in Eastern Pennsylvania regarding parental involvement. Recently, Dr. Edwards was a research associate on the team for the Center on Innovation and Improvement (CII). She was also the Coordinator for the Consortium for Parent Information and Education (CPIE)/LSS. Through CPIE, Dr. Edwards worked to empower parental decision-making by providing parents with information they needed to effectively guide their children’s education. As Program and Implementation Specialist, she assisted schools and organizations with implementing more effective parent involvement initiatives. Dr. Edwards also has a background in public, community and business relations. She has developed, directed, and managed a variety of educational, career readiness and job skills training programs in Philadelphia and has served as the lead counselor, case manager, and instructor for such programs.
Becky Leiter, Early Childhood Coordinator
E-mail: bleiter@csc.csiu.org
Phone: 717.763.1661 ext. 205
Becky Leiter has over twenty years experience in the field of early childhood education, Head Start and collaboration. She has managed and supervised a Head Start Home Based Program for 12 years and provided professional development opportunities to Head Start staff in the same capacity. She has child care experience which assists in the knowledge of forming partnerships in the early childhood community. She has over five years experience with the Head Start State Collaboration Office as a Technical Assistant in Central and South Central PA. In that capacity she has worked with school districts using Accountability Block Grant money for PreK Programming. She also has experience working with the PA PreK Counts Grantees in the Central, South Central and Western Regions of PA. She has an AA in Early Childhood Education from Harrisburg Area Community College and a BS in Psychology from Albright College.