Chief Chat: Peggy O'Brien

Dr. Peggy O’Brien was appointed Chief of Family and Public Engagement for District of Columbia Public Schools in March, 2008, and leads the district’s work with parents and families, as well as community engagement, community partnerships, press and strategic communications.

Can you explain to us what you do?

I work on parent/family engagement, partnerships and strategic communication. Part of my work also includes working with the press.

Where are you originally from?

I originally come from a little town outside of Boston. I came to DC to attend Trinity College, which was the oldest Catholic women's college in DC. When I was enrolling in college, many of the best colleges and universities were not available to women.

When did you know you wanted to go into education?

I knew it when I was a junior in college in 1968. 1968 was a year when there was so much going on in this country, and a lot of them were happening right here in Washington! There was the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement, and the beginning of the women's movement all happening at the same time. It was a period of civil unrest but also a period of real dynamic change.

It was a time of incredible dynamism. MLK was assassinated in April of 1968, and Robert Kennedy was assassinated in June of 1968, but it was also the time of Woodstock and all that sort of stuff. It was wild. There was all this stuff going on. It was time when you felt that there could really be some change and that change was really important. I had never thought about being a teacher, but being in Washington where all these things were happening was just a gift. I started realizing that connecting people to the power of their own brains was the most important thing that you could do, so that’s why I became a teacher. I wanted to teach in DC Public schools and no where else. I knew that I wanted to be right here in high schools with kids from DC.

Can you tell us about your certification program?

I was in a program called the Urban Teacher Corps. It was a program that was created and run by DCPS. I started teaching summer school the June after my college graduation and then went into teaching English at Roosevelt High School. This country was desperate, desperate for teachers then, so there were loads of new teachers going into schools. It was a really interesting time to go into teaching.

What are you most proud of since being at DCPS?

I am proud to be a part of this reform. I'm here because I heard the chancellor when she first came and said what she wanted to do with these schools, with this system. She was focusing on children and not adults, and I just thought "Wow." I lived in this city all this time, and my children went to DCPS. I know the kids in this city are smart, yet these schools have consistently let them down, so I wanted to do whatever I could to be a part of what the chancellor was doing. I wrote her a letter and said "What can I do for you?", and now I’m here.

What were you doing before you joined DCPS?

I was Senior Vice President for Education at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. I worked a lot on the television shows that go on the air for kids, like Sesame Street.

What do you find most challenging about your job?

What we are doing is so big, yet we are coming from so far behind, so our sense of urgency is very strong. We can't ever move fast enough. There is never enough time. It’s challenging, and you never feel like you are doing a good enough job because there is always so much more to be done.

Do you have any advice for our associates?

Just drink as deeply from all of this as you possibly can. This is a moment in time. This reform is a moment in time. Your role in this reform is a moment in time. Work as hard as you can. Go to as many seminars and classrooms as you can. Do whatever you can to wring every drop from this summer. Just know you will never be able to do everything you want to do, and part of that is throwing yourself into your work, but if there are people you want to talk to, DCPS is a very horizontal organization. If there are people here doing interesting things that you want to talk to, contact them. Everybody is glad for that. Everybody can fit that into their day because you guys are important.