About Geri ClouseGeri Clouse, owner of Family Matters Education, has been providing educational workshops since 1992. Her workshops have been received enthusiastically throughout the San Antonio and Hill Country areas. Her informative, research-based presentations are sprinkled with just the right dose of parenting humor and personal anecdotes to keep them interesting and fast-paced, and make them unforgettable.
After graduating from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio in 1982, Geri began working with children, as a pediatric dental hygienist. For ten years, she witnessed the powerful effect that respectful communication could have on children, indeed, that their cooperation and trust could be gained through a combination of empathy, respect, descriptive praise and acceptance. In 1992, after the birth of her first child, Geri accepted a position at Methodist Health Care System in San Antonio, where she became a certified childbirth educator, and subsequently began teaching childbirth and beginning parenting classes. Five years later, in 1997, after recognizing a need for parenting education beyond the early years of a child’s life, Geri established Family Matters Education. The educational workshops offered through Family Matters Education provide practical, effective tools that enable parents, administrators and teachers to communicate respectfully and successfully with children. Geri's certifications include:
For fifteen years Geri served as program director and parent educator for the Positive Parenting Collaborative a group of nonprofit organizations which includes, St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Church, St. Mark Presbyterian Early Learning Center, and Benedictine Ministries Corporation. The collaborative is an offshoot of the Precious Minds, New Connections Initiative in Kendall County, funded from 2001-2016 by the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation with the intent of educating parents and caregivers of children under the age of four. Finally, Geri serves as program director and parent educator for the Survival Skills for Healthy Families program, a joint effort between the Kendall County Child Services Board, the Hill Country Daily Bread Ministries and St. Mark Presbyterian Church. This program — begun in 2009, and funded through donations from local organizations, businesses and individuals — provides instruction for parents with children age five through seventeen. Geri has given numerous presentations at annual conferences throughout the San Antonio and Hill Country area, including the San Antonio Association for the Education of Young Children Conference, the Start Seeing Diversity Conference, the Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area Teachers’ Conference, Southwest Texas Conference and the Hill Country Child Care Providers' Conference — where she also delivered the keynote address. She has been the subject of several articles on parenting which have appeared in a variety of newspapers. The most recent — “Let Kids Have a Say on When to Quit” (January 2013), and “10 Ways to be a More Effective Parent” (August 2012) — were published in the San Antonio Express-News. In September 2012, Geri was featured on Great Day SA, a television program which airs daily on KENS 5 in San Antonio and often is geared towards lifestyle issues. In a segment entitled, “Kids Aren't the Only Ones Who Need Educating,” Geri discussed the theory that adults who care for children not only must meet the needs of those under their care, but in order to be strong, effective role models also must find time to take care of themselves and establish healthy living habits. Geri, and her husband, Steven, have been married since 1984, and have two children, Madeline and Zachary, who provide much of the material for Geri’s workshops. |
|
|