Honoring Women’s History Month: Highlighting the Center’s Founder, Dr. Joan Pennell

This Women’s History Month, we are honoring and celebrating CFACE’s founder, Dr. Joan Pennell. In addition to creating the Center, which is still thriving and dedicated to helping families and communities across North Carolina, Dr. Pennell’s extensive and impressive career is just one example of the intelligent, diligent and passionate women who have not only changed the field of social work and child welfare, but have made CFACE and NC State what it is today. Dr. Pennell was kind enough to agree to an interview for Women’s History Month sharing information about her career, research, and how CFACE came to be. 

Dr. Joan Pennell started her career in Toronto as a child protection worker before moving to Newfoundland (Canada). She was also early involved in the battered women’s movement. Upon moving to Newfoundland, she was one of the founders of the first shelter for abused women and their children in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Her early career already demonstrated her dedication to helping support families and communities. In addition to these projects, Dr. Pennell directed a project alongside a colleague on Family Group Decision Making (FGDM) in Newfoundland and Labrador. Family Group Decision Making is a practice that involves agencies working directly with families to ensure that their voices are heard and play a role in creating plans that safeguard children and other family members.

How CFACE Came to Be 

When presenting her research focused on Family Group Decision Making at a conference in North Carolina, she was approached by individuals who were interested in the model and thought it would work well for families and communities in North Carolina. One of the individuals who approached her was a long-time child protection worker, and their connection quickly led to family group conferencing being adopted as policy in North Carolina. At that time, Dr. Pennell had just moved to North Carolina and was a faculty member of social work at NC State, and she went on to become the department head of what is now the School of Social Work. As a faculty member, she entered a contract with North Carolina social services to promote engagement with families and communities and build support around children and their families. She held this contract for many years as a faculty member, but she eventually decided that it would be more manageable to accomplish this work out of a center rather than the department. 

That decision is what led to the creation of the Center for Family and Community Engagement in 2008. 

“I wanted a base on campus that was reaching out to the community and families within the community. I wanted to nurture that connection and create a center from which we could organize projects and bring in evaluation and research that could then be shared through training, conferences, and publications.” 

Although it all started with family group conferencing, the Center began expanding and picking up other contracts, which led to the Center doing training and evaluation. Almost 20 years later, the Center is still striving to help families and communities across the state. Dr. Pennell shared that she is “extremely pleased that the Center is still working with other contracts to carry out work that supports building stronger families and communities.” 

The Center for Family and Community Engagement and Beyond

Asked about some of her greatest accomplishments throughout her life, Dr. Pennell shared that one of her most prized achievements is that the Center is able to support students. 

“I’m very pleased that the Center continues to generate opportunities for students and faculty to work with communities. My view is that education is greatly improved when people have those connections and are working with communities and planning together. I think that’s just wonderful.” 

She also shared that being involved with policy making is something that has been important. Although the Center does not set legislation, it has been extremely involved in the writing of policy manuals. Dr. Pennell served on the social services advisory council for many years, and other CFACE directors and staff members have also been heavily involved with helping social services update and revise policy manuals. 

In addition, Dr. Pennell’s extensive research has led to over 200 publications. In 2023, Dr. Pennell presented her research on a restorative approach to family violence at the International Kempe Conference and discussed her 2023 book A Restorative Approach to Family Violence: Feminist Kinmaking. Her  theory of feminist kinmaking explains that when dealing with family violence, it is essential to stay connected with the feminist movement and collaborate closely with communities. 

Her Work Continues

Dr. Pennell’s impressive career extends across decades, her dedication to continuing her research unfaltering. Her connection to CFACE continues as she serves as Professor Emerita. In addition, she was recently invited to create an anthology of her writings on restorative justice for the European press De Gruyter Brill. The anthology includes 16 publications; 10 of these publications were co-authored with others, including faculty and students who worked at CFACE. This latest book A Restorative Approach to Family Violence: Peacemaking identifies not only how to safely carry about family and community engagement in situations of family violence, but also delves into why restorative approaches are effective in building peace. Beyond research and publications, she also continues to serve her local community through her involvement in building peace.