Penny O’Connor is a speech communication instructor at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. She teaches in the areas of first year inquiry, interpersonal communication and public speaking. While in the Cedar Valley, she was on the faculty of the University of Northern Iowa for 29 years, served as a volunteer for Cedar Valley Hospice and was active in the Waterloo Community Playhouse and Cedar Falls Community theatre, and also co-operated For Goodness Sake, a gift and home accent store in Waterloo.
She is a professional auctioneer and graduate of the World Wide College of Auctioneering and has been a leader for Weight Watchers for 25 years. She is a popular workshop presenter and keynote speaker, and provides training about listening and communications skills as well as other motivational topics to many groups and organizations.