Peggy Kerns
Director

Natalie O'Donnell Wood
Program Principal

Peggy Kerns has been director of the Center for Ethics in Government since 1999. She also is the NCSL staff liaison to the Ohio General Assembly. Prior to coming to NCSL, she was deputy assistant secretary for the Office of Intergovernmental and Interagency Affairs at the U.S. Department of Education. From 1989 to 1997, she served in the Colorado House of Representatives, including two years as minority leader. Before being elected to the Colorado General Assembly, she served on the Aurora, Colorado City Council for six years. 

A former businesswoman, she worked for the Samsonite Corporation and Mountain Medical Equipment, both in Denver, Colorado. She graduated from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and holds a master's degree in public administration from the University of Colorado.

Natalie O'Donnell Wood is program principal for the Center for Ethics in Government.  She came to NCSL in 2000, and has specialized in legislative staff, legislative session, and rules and procedure issues.  She is also NCSL's liaison to the Leadership Staff Section. She serves as NCSL state liaison to the Illinois General Assembly.

She is a graduate of Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana, where she obtained a degree in political science, and holds a master's degree in political science, politics and public policy from the Center for New Directions in Politics and Public Policy at the University of Colorado at Denver.