SEQUIM — Nicole Brewer is the new executive director of the Parenting Matters Foundation.
She succeeds founding Executive Director Cynthia Martin, who has retired from the position but will serve on the board.
“I’ve been doing it for 28 years. It’s time to go,” Martin said.
The foundation’s board voted Brewer the new chief of the organization, which oversees the First Teacher program, on March 25.
Parenting Matters oversees the First Teacher program for parents of children from birth to kindergarten and provides parenting classes throughout Clallam County.
It hosts a family resource room at the Sequim unit of the Boys &Girls Cubs of the Olympic Peninsula at 400 W. Fir St. at 10:30 a.m. each Monday. There, children are given free books and members of the community read with children.
The group also sends out monthly parenting newsletters with tips and information on parenting, child development, healthy practices and local activities.
It hosts BLOCK FestTM sessions using a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The program helps parents learn to help their children with math and science, Martin said.
Parenting Matters also oversees a kindergarten program in Bremerton and North Thurston County, Martin said.
Brewer began attending the First Teacher drop-in room as a parent of an infant and grew in the organization through volunteering.
She facilitated a Parent Connection group, was trained and has facilitated community cafes, managed the First Teacher Room operations in 2011 and became a parent educator in 2014. She was hired as the First Teacher Program director in 2015.
She has a bachelor’s in civil engineering and an early childhood education certificate.
“I enjoy helping families grow stronger with community support so parents may be the best First Teacher for their children,” Brewer said in a news release.
For more information about the group, see www.facebook.com/FirstTeacher PMF.
