National Advisory Council
Don Stedman, PhD
Council Chair
Developmental Psychology and Special Education
Vice Chair, NC Early Childhood Foundation
Founding Chair, New Voices Foundation
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Education, UNC-CH
Former VP Research/ Public Services, UNC System Former Associate Director, FPG Child Development Inst.
Chapel Hill, NC
Subhash Batra, PhD
Council Member
Mechanical Engineering and Management
Charles A. Cannon Professor Emeritus of Textile Management, North Carolina State University
Graduate of the Sloan School of Management, MIT, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, MIT, and Delhi University, Delhi, India.
Chapel Hill, NC
Kathryn Summers Clark, PhD
Council Member
Child Development
Professor of Human Environmental Sciences
Child Development Program Coordinator, Meredith College
Child Life Program, McGovern Children’s Hospital, Duke University Medical Center
Board member, Frankie Lemon School and Foundation
Former Chair of the NC Birth-K Higher Education Consortium
Raleigh, NC
Craig Ramey, PhD
Council Member
Developmental Psychology
Professor and Distinguished Research Scholar of Human Development, Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute
Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Human Development, Virginia Tech
Professor of Pediatrics, Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine
Principal Investigator, the Abecedarian Studies of the FPG Institute, UNC Chapel Hill
Roanoke, VA
Joseph Sparling, PhD
Council Member
Educational Psychology
Senior Scientist Emeritus, the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, UNC Chapel Hill and
Honorary Professorial Fellow, Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne – Australia
Developer (with Craig Ramey) of the Abecedarian Approach of the FPG Institute, UNC Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC
Lucila Vargas, PhD
Council Member
Latinx Media Studies and Communication for Social Justice
Professor Emerita, UNC-CH School of Media and Journalism
Research and publications on:
Culturally appropriate self-help for Latina teens
Migrancy, identity and popular culture
Teacher diversity
Social uses of radio by ethnic minorities
Chapel Hill, NC
Mary Young, MD Pediatrics, and DrPH Public Health
Council Member
Senior Advisor, Center on the Developing Child
Harvard University
Senior Advisor, University of Chicago Institute for New Economic Thinking
Senior Fellow and Director of Early Child Development, The China Development Research Foundation, Beijing, China
Bethesda, MD