Patsene Dashiell is the new Parenting Matters Foundation and First Teacher Executive Director.
Parenting Matters is a nonprofit organization that serves as a resource for parents of young children. Parenting Matters oversees the First Teacher program for parents of children from birth to kindergarten and provides parenting classes throughout Clallam County.
The group sends out monthly parenting newsletters with tips and information on parenting, child development, healthy practices and local activities. Parenting Matters also hosts a family resource room at the Sequim unit of the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Olympic Peninsula at 400 W. Fir St. There, children are given free books and members of the community read with children (the room is currently closed because of COVID-19 restrictions).
The foundation’s board voted Dashiell the new chief of the organization, which oversees the First Teacher program, earlier this year. Dashiell began her new post in late June; she succeeds Executive Director Patty Waite, who recently retired from the position.
Dashiell has worked in school communications and community relations in the Sequim and Port Angeles School Districts during the last decade. Prior to that, she managed the First Teacher room operations for two years.
She is the former business owner of Jetxon U.S.A. Ltd. Apparel Sourcing and founder of Project Scrubs, a medical apparel retailer.
“My first introduction to this program was attending a parenting meeting in 1993 when I had just arrived in Sequim with two daughters under the age of four,” Dashiell said. At that event, she noted, she met other parents who have remained friends, along with Cynthia Martin, the founder of the First Teacher program and initial executive director of Parenting Matters Foundation. Martin’s column on parenting advice appears weekly in the Sequim Gazette newspaper.
“(Cynthia’s) passion for providing parenting information all these years has benefited countless families on the Olympic Peninsula,” Dashiell said. “Entering into this position feels very much like coming full circle. I am excited to apply my skills and experience in continuing the good work of this organization to strengthen families in our community.”
For more information about the group or to sign up for the free parenting newsletter, see www.facebook.com/FirstTeacherPMF. To reach Dashiell, email to patsene@firstteacher.org or call 360-681-2250.
Editor’s note: Dashiell is the wife of Sequim Gazette editor Michael Dashiell.
