Georgia DeGangi, Ph.D..
Chair

• Dr. DeGangi  is a clinical psychologist and an occupational therapist in private practice, with more than 30 years of experience working with infants, children and their families. She is the author of several publications (Documenting Sensory Progress, Pediatric Disorders of Regulation in Affect and Behavior, Effective Parenting for the Hard-to-Manage Child, Kids' Club Letters: Narrative Tools for Stimulating Process and Dialogue in Therapy Groups for Children and Adolescents) and several assessment instruments for infants and young children (The Functional Emotional Assessment Scale, The DeGangi-Berk Test of Sensory Integration, Test of Sensory Functions in Infants, Infant/Toddler Symptom Checklist, The Test of Attention in Infants.

Jose Cordero, MD, MPH
Vice Chair

• Dr.  Cordero is a pediatrician and a public health expert. He has been the Dean of the University of Puerto Rico Graduate School of Public Health since 2006. Prior to this, Dr. Cordero was Assistant Surgeon General of the Public Health Service and the Founding Director of the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. He serves in the  advisory committee for the National Children's Study. 

Emily Vargas-Baron.
Trustee

• Dr. Vargas Baron holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology with a focus on Education from Stanford University. In addition to directing and conducting activities for The RISE Institute, she consults internationally in the fields of education and integrated early childhood development, focusing on policy planning, training, program design and evaluation research, and is a regular consultant for several multilateral agencies such as UNICEF, World Bank, UNESCO, Open Society Institute and other foundations. From 1994 to 2001, she was Deputy Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where she directed the Center for Human Capacity Development. Previously, she founded and directed a research and development institute for early childhood development in Austin Texas, called the Center for Development, Education and Nutrition (now called Any Baby Can). Dr. Vargas-Barón was also an Education Advisor for the Bogotá Office of The Ford Foundation and a Program Specialist in Education for UNESCO in Paris. She is the author of many books, chapters, articles, and research studies, and she has worked in countries in all world regions.

Barbara Dunbar, Ph.D..
Trustee

• Dr. Dunbar is a licensed psychologist. She specializes in assessment and treatment of young children with developmental and learning disorders, including Autism. For the past 10 years she worked closely with Dr. Stanley Greenspan and is part of the national DIR faculty. Dr. Dunbar received a master's degree in special education from Tufts University and a doctorate in psychology from Georgia State University. She has been a preschool teacher and learning disabilities specialist, and continues to consult with preschool and elementary teachers on developmental variations in learning and curriculum development. Dr. Dunbar has worked extensively with infants born at high risk, and for 15 years directed the long term developmental follow up program for Emory's high risk nursery. She has also offered training courses for parents to learn the DIR/Floortime model for more than 10 years