H. Melvin “Mel” Ming is a broadcast executive who has delivered enriching media and experiences to audiences for the past 35 years. Mel retired in 2014 from Sesame Workshop where he worked for 15 years, the last three years he was President and CEO overseeing the gold standard children’s program Sesame Street and its worldwide distribution. He previously held executive positions at the Museum of Television and Radio (now Paley Center for Media), WQED Media in Pittsburgh, WNET in New York City and NPR in Washington.

Mel was born in Bermuda and attended Temple University graduating with a B.A. in Accounting. He later served in the U. S. Army during the Vietnam War. Mel is a certified public accountant. Mel has served as an independent director of Westwood One radio and Dial Global. Mel believes that good media should inspire its users to have consistent benefits beyond mere entertainment. He is committed to the creation and distribution of media that teaches, images that inspire, and media experiences that build knowledge and skill that are life enhancing. Close.

Marilou Hyson is a national and international consultant on early child development and education.  She focuses on young children’s social and emotional development and has examined early childhood educational interventions and policies, emphasizing teacher professional development as a strategy for improving early learning environments and outcomes.

Internationally, Marilou has been a senior advisor to UNICEF, the World Bank, and Save the Children, supporting work in countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Rwanda. She has advised on the development of teacher competency standards; the design and evaluation of professional development programs for teachers in low-income rural areas; and digital resources to support families with young children in Europe and Central Asia.

After serving as Professor and Chair of the University of Delaware’s Department of Individual and Family Studies, Marilou was Associate Executive Director for Professional Development at the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Marilou previously served as editor-in-chief of Early Childhood Research Quarterly and co-chaired SRCD’s Policy and Communications Committee. She received a Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College in child development and early childhood education and was an SRCD Fellow in the US Department of Education. Close.

Walter is a nationally recognized fiscal training and technical assistance consultant specializing in federally funded government and nonprofit organizations. Mr. Frye has extensive experience assisting clients with regulatory issues concerning governance, financial and administrative compliance with grants awarded by the Office of Head Start, Department of Health and Human Services. He has a wealth of knowledge in the application of grant regulations to both primary grantees and sub-contractors/sub-recipients. The Fiscal Institute, LLC conducts trainings for Head Start grantees on a nationwide  basis, and it is a frequent trainer at Regional and State Head Start Professional Development Conferences.

Since 2004, Frye has served some of the largest social service agencies providing Head Start services in capacities as Interim Executive Director, Compliance Director, and Chief Financial Officer.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Frye was the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Frye Williams & CO CPA, which became New Jersey’s largest minority-owned firm. He has been on the accounting faculty of Fairleigh Dickinson University and Essex County College and was Senior Auditor and Tax Accountant at Deloitte & Touche.

Frye received a B.S. from Morgan State University and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Frye is a life member of the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity. Close.

Professor McBride Murry’s research focuses on examining the significance of context to everyday life experiences of African American families and youth; specific consideration is given to the implications of racism and other social structural stressors that marginalize families, for cascading influences on parenting and family functioning, mental and physical health, quality of life, and developmental outcomes and adjustment among youth. She has translated research from longitudinal research studies to inform the design, development and implementation of two RCTs to test their efficacy in youth risk behavior engagement. These programs, The Strong African American Families (SAAF) and the Pathways for African Americans Success (PAAS), not only prevented high risk behaviors but also demonstrated spillover effects on the enhancement of several educational-related outcomes among youth as they transition from middle childhood through high school.

Professor McBride Murry’s overarching goal is to disseminate her evidence-based preventive intervention programs for uptake in community-based organizations, as well as schools and primary health care settings and in faith-based organizations, and examine their efficacy and effectiveness in real-world settings. She is President of the Society for Research on Adolescence (2020-2022), serves on boards of directors and governing councils, including the National Academy of Medicine, and holds positions on numerous editorial boards. Close.

Gregg Auerbach provides a sound investment approach for ultra-high-net-worth individuals, families and nonprofits to help them achieve their investment goals. He joined J.B. Hanauer & Co. in 1991 — it became RBC Wealth Management in 2009. He provides comprehensive wealth management, identifies clients’ investment objectives and performs individualized client portfolio construction. Gregg assists clients in understanding their risk profile by providing intelligent investment advice founded on fundamental investment principles. Then he helps clients in developing an appropriate investment portfolio.

Gregg is proud to use the Certified Portfolio Manager title from the Academy of Certified Portfolio Managers (ACPM). The CPM® program included extensive coursework and examination, followed by a five-day seminar at Columbia University led by internationally recognized professors. The CPM® curriculum involves indepth study of fundamental analysis, option valuation, foreign currency exchange, credit default swap structure and valuation analysis, and asset allocation. Gregg is among more than 350 individuals who attained this certification, establishing himself as a forerunner in portfolio management.

Gregg earned his doctorate in dental surgery from the University of Medicine and Pharmacy Carol Davila and is fluent in English, Hebrew, and Romanian languages. Close.

Dr. Cynthia García Coll is a Developmental Psychologist, who was a professor at Brown University for 30 years. Her research focuses on the interplay of sociocultural and biological influences on child development, with particular emphasis on at-risk and minority populations. She received her Ph.D. in Personality and Developmental Psychology from Harvard University.

Dr. García Coll has served on the editorial boards of leading academic journals, including being the Senior Editor of Child Development and Developmental Psychology. She is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the Association for Psychological Science and has received lifetime contributions awards from the Society of Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics, Tufts University, Erikson  Institute, the Society for Research in Adolescence and the Society for Research in Child Development. She has been on the governing boards of the Rhode Island Foundation, the Society for Research in Child Development and the Foundation for Child Development, and served as member and chair of the Scholars Program at the W. T. Grant Foundation. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the McArthur Foundation, the W. T. Grant Foundation, and Spencer Foundation. Close.

Dr. Elena Fuentes-Afflick obtained her undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in Public Health (Epidemiology) from the University of California, Berkeley. She completed her residency and chief residency at UCSF, followed by a research fellowship at the Phillip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies. Dr. Fuentes-Afflick’s scholarly work has focused on the broad themes of acculturation, immigrant health, health disparities, faculty misconduct, and faculty development. She has served in leadership roles in the Society for Pediatric Research (Council and President), the American Pediatric Society (Council and President), was elected to membership in the National Academy of Medicine in 2010 and elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020. Close.

Lynn A. Karoly is a RAND senior economist whose research has focused on the well-being of children, youth, and families; human capital investments from birth to adulthood; economic disparities; social welfare policy; and labor market behavior. Much of her recent research has focused on early care and education (ECE) programs, with studies on the use and quality of ECE programs, the system of publicly subsidized ECE programs, professional development for the ECE workforce, ECE quality rating and improvement systems, and ECE program cost and financing. Another area of her expertise is the application of benefit-cost analysis (BCA) and related tools such as cost analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis to social programs, with recent analyses of the economic returns to early childhood interventions and youth development programs. Other research has examined issues pertaining to poverty, inequality, immigration, welfare reform, self-employment, and retirement.

In addition to her research, Karoly served as director of RAND’s Office of Research Quality Assurance from 2004 to 2014 and director of RAND Labor and Population from 1995 to 2003. Her professional service includes roles as the 2017 president of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis and editorial positions for the Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis and The Journal of Human Resources. She was as a member of the National Academies of Sciences (NAS) Committee on Financing Early Care and Education with a Highly Qualified Workforce and previously served on the NAS committee that produced Advancing the Power of Economic Evidence to Inform Investments in Children, Youth, and Families (2016). Karoly received her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University. Close.

Virginia Klein has over 20 years of experience delivering investments, with a focus on alternative investments, to institutional and high-net-worth investors. Virginia joined Lombard International in 2015 and is Executive Vice President and Head of the Investments function, which includes asset manager origination, onboarding, relationship management, and due diligence. She is Chairperson of the Investment Committee, an Executive Committee member, and sits on the Board for Lombard International Distribution company.

Prior to Lombard, she spent 10 years in the Alternative Investments Group at Merrill Lynch Wealth Management in New York, where she was a Director of Origination & Product Management for hedge funds as well as Head of Innovation for the Alternative Investments Group. Virginia held a similar role in the private equity and real assets group prior to joining the hedge fund group. She received her B.A. in Political Science from Clemson University and her MBA from the McDonough School at Georgetown University. Close.

Salvatore LaSpada is an internationally recognized leader in strategic philanthropy. As Founder and CEO of Alchemy Philanthropy, he works with foundations in designing governance, developing strategy, assessing impact, and managing inter-generational leadership transitions.

Prior to establishing Alchemy, he served as founding Executive Director of a foundation established by the Royal Family of Abu Dhabi focused on early childhood education from 2011 to 2015. His previous philanthropic affiliations include the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation (Brazil Office), and the MacArthur Foundation. He also served as a philanthropic advisor to the Rockefeller Family. At the center of his work is The Philanthropy Workshop, the world’s premiere donor education program and network for Foundation trustees, which he led from 1999 to 2011, first at the Rockefeller Foundation and then as Chief Executive at the Institute for Philanthropy (London and New York).

Dr. LaSpada was a Trustee of Zennström Philanthropies (London) and currently serves as a Trustee of the Raymond and Gloria Naftali Foundation (New York). He is the former Chair of the Hetrick-Martin Institute and Hispanics in Philanthropy, and served on the advisory committee of the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University. He was an Eisenhower Fellow in Argentina, a visiting lecturer at the University of Bologna’s Masters in International Studies in Philanthropy program (2004-2008), and a Visiting Senior Fellow at the London School of Economics (2010). He was a Fellow at the London-based Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts/RSA from 2009 to 2011 and is a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. LaSpada holds a B.A. in Classics (Ancient Greek and Latin) from Haverford College, an M.A. in Communications from Temple University, and an M.Ed. and Ed.D. in International Education and Development from Columbia University. Close.

Tammy Mann has worked at the intersection of research, practice and policy in early care and education for more than 25 years. She has devoted her career to improving life outcomes for children, youth and families. Tammy is President and Chief Executive Office of The Campagna Center, a community based nonprofit in Alexandria, Virginia that provides cradle to career education and social development programs to over 2,000 children, teens, and adults. Currently, she is actively involved in several initiatives aimed at improving early care and education opportunities across her community and our region. She serves on a number of Boards and Advisory Committees as was most recently appointed by Governor Northam to serve a four-year term on the Virginia State Board of Education. She has authored articles and books on topics related to policy and practice issues that address the emotional well-being of young children and the role of culture in development. She is a former Public Policy Fellow with the American Psychological Association and has held adjunct affiliations with Howard University and George Mason University. Close.

Joseph Tobin is the Elizabeth Garrard Hall Professor of Early Childhood Education at the University of Georgia. He has previously taught at Arizona State University, University of Hawaii, and the University of New Hampshire and is an AERA Fellow. His research interests include cross-cultural studies of early childhood education, immigration and education, children and the media, preschool teaching expertise, and qualitative research methods and especially video-based methods for studying young children, preschool teachers, and preschools. He has led four multinational research projects on preschools, with significant funding from the Spencer Foundation and the Bernard van Leer Foundation and supervised 30 doctoral students, some of whom are now professors of early childhood education at research universities. Tobin’s books include Preschool in Three Cultures (Yale University Press, 1989); Making a Place for Pleasure in Early Childhood Education (Yale University Press, 1993); Pikachu’s Global Adventure: The Rise and Fall of Pokemon (Duke University Press, 2000); Good Guys Don’t Wear Hats: Children’s Talk about the Media (Teachers College Press, 2003); Preschool in Three Cultures Revisited (University of Chicago Press, 2009); Children Crossing Borders: Immigrant Parents and Teacher Perspectives on Preschool for Children of Immigrants (2013); Teaching Embodied: Japanese Preschool Teaching as Cultural Practice (University of Chicago Press, 2015) and Preschool and Im/migrants in Five Countries (Peter Lang, 2016). His current research projects include “Deaf Kindergarten’s in Three Countries: France, Japan, and the United States” and “The Development of Expertise in Preschool Teachers in Three Cultures: Japan, China, and the United States.” Close.

Drew White spent the first 15 years of his career trading and managing risk across developing economies. Most recently as Head of Latin American Credit Trading at UBS Investment Bank his responsibilities included supervising a dynamic team of traders and analysts, developing customized trading strategies across a broad array of financial products, and facilitating client order flow through various liquidity access points.

In 2021, Drew received his Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. He now works within the Asset Management division at UBS focusing primarily on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Environmental, Social, and Governance, and Sustainable Investments across the alternative asset space. His professional goal is to expand inclusivity in financial services while investing capital to achieve positive environmental and social impact alongside attractive risk-adjusted financial returns.

Drew earned his Bachelor of Science degree from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife and two young daughters. He previously served on the Board of Directors at The Family Center in Brooklyn working to strengthen families affected by crisis, illness, or loss while creating a more secure present and future for their children. He was an SEO Career Fellow and remains an advocate and supporter of the nation’s premier training and internship organization for people of color. Close.