Conscious Connections founder and principal consultant Kim Hughes helps teachers, school administrators, child care providers, and parents harness positive discipline techniques and cutting-edge early childhood research to create rewarding relationships and positive learning environments for children from birth to fifth grade.

Kim has worked with educators, thought leaders, and elected officials for 24 years and with children in the classroom for three decades. President Bill Clinton visited her classroom, and she has worked with three state governors to date.

She developed curriculum for Teaching Strategies Incorporated, Sesame Street’s Global Grover Project and PBS' Danger Ranger Series, and has delivered customized training and coaching services to clients in public and private school settings, multiple chapters of the Association for the Education of Young Children (AEYC), Head Start groups, colleges and universities, and education foundations.

Kim is sought after as a keynote speaker and trainer, recently speaking to an audience of more than 10,000 educators at the Opening Session Keynote at the NAEYC Annual Conference. She has delivered more than 350 keynotes and workshops to pre-kindergarten and elementary educator audiences throughout North America, consistently receiving participation satisfaction scores of 4.8 or higher on a 5-point scale.

Kim is a Conscious Discipline National Certified Instructor and has authored articles in multiple publications, including Young Children and Early Childhood Education Journal. She has been appointed to and served on numerous local, state, and national educational boards, task forces, and civic organizations, including serving as founder and facilitator of the Wake County Public Schools Superintendent’s Teacher Advisory Council and co-facilitator of the Wake County Schools Superintendent’s SUMMIT for several years.

During her career, Kim has been honored with multiple awards, including North Carolina Teacher of the Year, Wal-Mart Foundation Teacher of the Year, University of North Carolina-Charlotte’s Nurturing Hands Award, Rochester AEYC Friend of Young Children Award, Lebanon Valley College’s Dr. June E. Herr Education Alumni Award and Alumni Distinction Award, North Carolina Central Region Teacher of the Year, Wake County Teacher of the Year, and Raleigh Jaycees Outstanding Young Educator Award.

She holds a Master of Science degree in Elementary Education from the State University of New York, administrative school leadership licensure from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education from Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania.

Wake Forest, NC currently serves as the home base from which Kim serves clients in North Carolina, Virginia, Washington DC, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and across the United States. She is one of only two Conscious Discipline Certified Instructors in North Carolina and one of only six Conscious Discipline Certified Instructors in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.

Kim founded Conscious Connections in 2011.