Tala Hooban is the deputy director of the Office of Head Start (OHS). As a public health professional, Tala brings expertise in how children, families, and systems can thrive – which is an asset to the comprehensive services that Head Start implements in partnership with communities across the country. Her academic studies were focused on maternal and child health.

Throughout Tala’s career, she’s ensured government agencies are supported to deliver strong outcomes for children and families. Tala was a trusted ACF leader to care for an increase in migrant children at the border, playing a vital role to spur action throughout the government to meet children’s needs for safe and supportive environments. Her track record at ACF and HHS includes authoring a groundbreaking approach to emergency planning centering on young children and families adopted by states.

She’s a commissioned officer of the U.S Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, with the rank of Captain (abbreviated as “CAPT”). The Public Health Service is one of our country’s uniformed services with the mission of advancing public health in the U.S. through service in federal agencies across the government.

As the Regional Program Director for the Region 9 Office of Head Start, Cynthia Yao is responsible for the grant administration, oversight/monitoring, and training and technical assistance (TTA) to Head Start recipients in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and the Outer Pacific Islands of American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the Republic of Palau. The Region 9 Office of Head Start funds 118 grant recipients with a federal funding level of over $1.8 billion serving approximately 110,000 children annually. She has worked for the Office of Head Start for over 20 years in various capacities such as Regional Program Manager, Supervisory Program Specialist and Program Specialist. Prior to service in the federal government, she worked under the Region 9 TTA contract as a subject matter content expert and formerly as a manager for a Bay Area Head Start Program.  Her professional experience also includes working in a juvenile prevention program, foster family agency, and child protective services.  She was born and raised in San Francisco, a former Head Start child, and a mother of two children ages 13 and 25. 

Dr. Philip Fisher is the Excellence in Learning Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford. His research, which has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1999, focuses on developing and evaluating scalable early childhood interventions in communities, and on translating scientific knowledge regarding healthy development under conditions of adversity for use in social policy and programs. He is particularly interested in the effects of early stressful experiences on children’s neurobiological and psychological development, and in prevention and treatment programs for improving children’s functioning in areas such as relationships with caregivers and peers, social-emotional development, and academic achievement. He is currently the lead investigator in the ongoing RAPID-EC project, a national survey on the well-being of households with young children during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Fisher is also interested in the brain’s plasticity in the context of therapeutic interventions. He is the developer of a number of widely implemented evidence-based interventions for supporting healthy child development in the context of social and economic adversity, including Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Preschoolers (TFCO-P), Kids in Transition to School (KITS), and Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND). He has published over 200 scientific papers in peer reviewed journals. He is the recipient of the 2012 Society for Prevention Research Translational Science Award, and a 2019 Fellow of the American Psychological Society.

Website: https://ed.stanford.edu/faculty/philf

Raelene Ostberg is the Founder of Thriving Together, an organization dedicated to bringing transformative professional development to early childhood educators and the trainers, leaders, and coaches who support them.  She brings boundless energy, 17 years of experience in early childhood classrooms, 25+ years working with families, extensive expertise in reducing stress, and 12 years as a professional Keynote speaker. Since 2012, she has completed training and education on stress and resiliency with Dr. Amit Sood through Mayo Clinic’s Stress-Free Living Program and was trained as a trainer of “The Resilient Option”, a framework to improve resilience, reduce stress, and build a positive work culture. Raelene obtained her B.A. in Theater and M.Ed. in Family Education from the University of Minnesota.  Raelene currently works as a National Keynote Speaker, Achieve Expert Trainer, New York State Training and Technical Assistant Professional, Published Author, Trainer Mentor, and Curriculum Designer.

In addition to meaningful topics on reducing caregiver burnout, Raelene specializes in forming strong partnerships and methods that help transform and redirect toddler behavior that she collected during fifteen years in infant and toddler classrooms. She brings a toolbox full of toddler guidance strategies that work wonders with these little humans (and the entertaining real-life stories to help teach others.) Her Taming Those Terrific Toddler series has received rave reviews from participants and helped transform challenging toddler classrooms and homes into fun and rewarding caregiving settings. Participants love Raelene’s enthusiasm, entertaining presentation style, and theatrical storytelling that bring evidence-based strategies to life.  To date, Raelene educates and inspired thousands of early childhood professionals nationally each year to support them in their critical work shaping young minds.

In her spare time, Raelene can also be found playing volleyball at the local YMCA, teaching Zumba and other fitness classes, and enjoying life on a hobby farm with her husband, dogs, goats, and chickens.

Raelene inspires thousands of early childhood educators nationally each year and is passionate to continue the adventure.  She is grateful every day for the opportunity to support the amazing humans who choose to educate and care for our youngest.  After all, these wonderful people are shaping our future, one child at a time.

Website: https://www.thriving-together.com/