A collaborative initiative for parent leadership
Connecting parent leadership experience with academic learning and workforce preparation across Massachusetts.
Mass ParentCorps is building a collaborative model to recognize parent leadership as a professional, compensated workforce.
Across Massachusetts, parents contribute as leaders, advisors, and community advocates. Yet too often, this leadership is treated as volunteerism rather than recognized as skilled, impactful work — and there is an opportunity to better connect parent leadership experience to structured, professional pathways.
Mass ParentCorps works alongside partners to do just that. We connect parent leadership experience with academic learning and workforce preparation — transforming parent leadership into a recognized, compensated, and professional pathway.
Together, we are closing opportunity gaps, creating meaningful career pathways for parents, and advancing community-driven leadership across Massachusetts.
Communities where parent leadership is recognized as a powerful asset and where parents have meaningful opportunities to contribute professionally to organizations that support families and communities.
The gap we're closing
Parent Leadership Is Growing
Across Massachusetts, organizations increasingly recognize the importance of engaging parents as partners and leaders in shaping programs, services, and systems.
Trusted Leadership Matters
Parents bring lived experience, cultural knowledge, and trusted relationships that strengthen connections between organizations and the communities they serve.
Career Pathways Matter
Many parent leaders are seeking opportunities to translate their leadership into careers — pathways that provide economic stability while allowing them to continue contributing to their communities.
Parent Leadership in
Massachusetts
Massachusetts has a strong and evolving history of initiatives that elevate parent leadership and strengthen partnerships between families and organizations.
This work has been shaped by generations of parent leaders across the state — including pioneers such as Gloria Devine and Cyntoria Grant — alongside many others who have led change within their communities, organizations, and systems.
Together, these leaders have shown that parent leadership is a powerful force for strengthening communities, shaping systems, and improving outcomes for families.
Mass ParentCorps builds on this collective legacy — advancing a model that recognizes parent leadership as a professional, compensated, and sustainable workforce.
Community Programs Expand
Community-based organizations across Massachusetts expand programs that engage parents as leaders, laying the foundation for more formalized parent leadership efforts.
Thrive in 5 & Parent Partners
The launch of Thrive in 5 helps elevate parent voices in shaping early childhood policies and systems. Parent Partners work alongside organizations to strengthen early childhood systems. During this period, initiatives also promote the use of Ages and Stages developmental screening tools to support early identification and connection to services.
Parent University
Parent University initiatives begin offering leadership development opportunities for parents in schools and communities.
Expansion Across Massachusetts
Parent leadership initiatives expand across Massachusetts through community-based organizations and collaborative programs. Organizations such as East Boston Social Centers contribute to advancing parent leadership and community engagement.
Exploring Workforce Pathways
Don Hawley works closely with community-based organizations that engage parents as leaders and begins exploring how parent leadership experience can be connected to workforce pathways.
Mass ParentCorps Begins
Mass ParentCorps begins conversations with community organizations across Massachusetts to develop a Parent Leadership Workforce Credential.
Co-Founders Unite
Magda Rodriguez-Villafañe joins the initiative and begins working with Don Hawley to develop the Mass ParentCorps pilot. She previously led the Parent Leadership Initiative (Ripple) at Families First, which received national recognition at Harvard University, and developed Families United for School and Education (FUSE).
Pilot Launch
Mass ParentCorps launches the pilot phase of the initiative.
The people behind
Mass ParentCorps
Don Hawley spent much of his career in senior leadership roles across the business sector, working as both a consultant and executive focused on strategy, organizational leadership, and performance. In 2010, he transitioned from the corporate world to apply his experience in service of local nonprofit organizations. Over time, his work became increasingly focused on early childhood, where he has contributed through pro bono consulting and active philanthropic engagement across Massachusetts. Through years of collaboration with community-based organizations that engage parents as leaders, Don observed both the profound impact of parent leadership and a critical opportunity: the need to better connect that leadership experience to structured workforce pathways. He brings deep experience in public policy, nonprofit leadership, and early childhood systems change, having worked alongside community organizations, philanthropic partners, and government agencies to support programs serving children and families. These experiences helped inspire the creation of Mass ParentCorps — an effort to recognize parent leadership as a professional, compensated workforce and expand economic opportunity for parents across Massachusetts.
Magda Rodriguez-Villafañe is a family engagement leader and co-founder of Mass ParentCorps, with a strong track record of advancing parent leadership and community-driven change. She spearheaded and led the Parent Leadership Initiative (Ripple) at Families First, which received national recognition at Harvard University for its innovative approach to empowering parents as leaders. Magda also developed Families United for School and Education (FUSE), an initiative designed to support families in advocating for their children and strengthening leadership within their communities. At Mass ParentCorps, she works in partnership with community organizations, community colleges, and research partners to design and implement the Parent Leadership Workforce Credential pilot — helping to transform parent leadership into a recognized, professional, and compensated pathway.
marostrategies@gmail.com