She is a living example of success, leadership and being a team builder. Pegine was raised in the Bronx by a single mother. Her neighborhood included drug addicts, bullies and gangs. Her sister died of a heroin overdose. During her rocky teen years she was involved with a girl's gang.

Pegine decided to change her life.

She moved to Madrid, Spain where she became an entrepreneur, because she needed to survive. Her drive made her succeed.

Pegine rose through the ranks in corporate America, from receptionist to National Sales Manager and Director of Operations. She was president of Mother's Network, a direct marketing company. Pegine left corporate America to make a difference in her community. She received her MSW in-group and organizational development from Adelphi University

Pegine worked with the Hispanic and youth serving community creating innovative family support programs and collaboratives. In the not for profit world, she started as an intern and worked her way to Director of a nationally recognized family support center. In 1996, the family support center she created and implemented was named one of the top seven Latino serving family support centers in the country by the Harvard Research Group.

She is author of RAVE: Youth Leadership Curriculum and The Apprentice Program For Managed Care Health Careers. The RAVE curriculum received congressional citations for outstanding youth programming by congressional members and CSAP. It is currently being used in schools in the United States and Canada. Her book For All Our Daughters: How Mentoring Helps Young Women and Girls Master the Art of Growing Up is used by Girl Scouts USA councils, GEAR UP groups and the Ofelia Project. Her curriculum ALCANZA: Vamos a Mandar Los Ninos A La Universidad (To Reach: We Are Going to Send Our Children To the University) has been used with Hispanic migrant workers throughout New York area school districts and resulted in increased parent involvement, and increased reading and math scores among children of participants.

Hispanic Business Magazine named her one of the top two Motivational Speakers in the country of Hispanic heritage. Her awards include the Orgullo Award for service to the Hispanic Community, the March of Dimes Women of Distinction award and congressional citations for outstanding Latino programming. She was inducted into the Motivational Speakers Hall of Fame for being one of the country's leading Hispanic Motivational Speaker, Youth Leadership Speaker and College Motivational Speaker

Success Stories

Thank you so much for the wonderful presentation you made at the Martin County Women of Distinction event. You were a hit!! We have received many positive comments regarding your topic of mentoring young women. Your suggestions for how best to help girls to open up were especially helpful and your suggestions were inspiring. You made us all examine our own relationships and how the simplest things we do can make such a difference in someone else's life. We will certainly keep you in mind for any future presentations that we may have, and certainly if we know of anyone looking for an uplifting speaker your name will be the first that comes to mind Susan M. Klein, Chair Women of Distinction Committee, Sorptimist International, Stuart, FL

WOW! Terrific! Outstanding! Thank You! I had fun! Didn't want it to end! You really care about us!" I have received nothing but positive feedback! Jimmy Cabrera, CSP NSA Youth Leadership Chair, National Speakers Association

I thoroughly enjoyed your talk at UNF today! Your participation as a motivational speaker during our April conference was a delight. Your presentation was fun, energetic, and brought life into early am session -- in short, you did an excellent job of "waking us up" and starting our program day on an upbeat, positive note. Thank you for your challenge to our participants to really make a difference through what they can do with young people in our camping programs. Jim Van Wingerden Executive Director, Camp Roger, Conference Chair, ACA Mid States Camping Conference

Your presentation to the National Middle School Association received an overall rating of 5 (5 being the best). "Bravo!" "Pegine did a great job. She provided the information I was looking for!" "I benefited a great deal from this!" "Wonderful Job! The evaluations are great! Terrific motivational speaker! Mary Henton, Director of Professional Development, National Middle School Association