Patty Wipfler
Founding Director, Hand in Hand
Patty Wipfler was born, raised and educated in California, graduating
from Occidental College in 1968, and is the mother of two sons. The focus
of her work since 1974 has been teaching basic listening, parenting, and
leadership skills to parents. She directed The School, a non-profit parent
co-operative preschool in Palo Alto, and later directed Neighborhood Infant
Toddler Center for Palo Alto Community Child Care. She has led over 370
residential weekend workshops for families and for leaders of parents
in every part of the U.S. and in 23 other countries.
In 1989, she founded the Parents Leadership Institute (Hand in Hand), a non-profit
organization that she now directs. She has written 12 booklets, produced
2 videotapes and several audiotapes, and has written numerous articles
for Hand in Hand on the principles and benefits of listening parent-to-parent and
parent-to-child, and on leading Parent Resource Groups. To date, Hand in Hand has
sold over 360,000 of these booklets in both English and Spanish. The Parents
Leadership Institute approach to parenting, Parenting
by Connection, is also presented in information and articles
posted at www.handinhandparenting.org, and in an e-newsletter, Connecting!,
which is published every 6 weeks. Articles by Patty have been published
in the Bulletin of Zero to Three: National Center for Infants,
Toddlers and Families, Child Welfare News, and Mothering
Magazine, and in many local newsletters for parents.
Hand in Hand assists parents to use basic listening
skills to deepen their relationships with their children and to build
effective long-range support for themselves. Hand in Hand trains parents to lead
their families well, and supports parents to use listening and relationship-building
skills to build strong communities.
Patty has two grown sons and lives in Palo Alto, California.
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