Team Group: Board of Directors

As former Chief Executive Officer of GRIT (now Kids Included) Barb has provided leadership and advocacy for the advancement of equity and inclusion for children with developmental disabilities and their families. Her work has been grounded in the core values of human rights, family-centered practice and applying evidence-based research to practice for the provision of…

Lisa Guernsey is the senior director of Birth to 12th Grade Policy and the co-founder and director of the Learning Sciences Exchange (LSX). She also leads the 1939 Library Sit-In Project, a New America initiative that started in 2022. Guernsey’s writing and editing sits at the intersection of literacy (including digital and media literacy), equity in education systems…

Jennifer Tschantz, Ph.D., is an Early Childhood Senior Principal Researcher and Technical Assistance Specialist with SRI International. She previously held key early childhood positions in both the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.   She has 30 years of experience supporting the implementation of evidence-based policies and practices that improve…

Karen Cuthrell, a rare Black developer in the white landscape of SEL, is the Chief Emotions Officer at The Feelings Company and a trailblazer in culturally and trauma-responsive SEL pedagogy. She created The Feeling Friends, the only Black early learning evidenced-based SEL integrated learning program in the United States, revolutionizing emotional literacy, mental wellness, and…

Tionia Williams is a former Pyramid Model Champion (2023) and has been a preschool teacher, Assistant Principal, team lead for her program’s Pyramid Leadership Team, Director of Early Learning and Educational Grants, and in her current role as Principal. Tionia has participated in the implementation of pyramid model practices since the first pyramid model grant…

Iheoma U. Iruka, Ph.D., is an award-winning tenured professor in the Department of Maternal and Child Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the Founding Director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). She is…

Donna is a senior early childhood researcher at SRI International. She is the Co-Director of the Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy Center). She has extensive experience designing and conducting research and evaluations on the effects of early intervention, early care and education, and school readiness programs and services for infants and young…