(L-R) Betsy Ayankoya, Dina Castro, Christina Kasprzak, Yinka Ayankoya

Team Biographies

Dina Castro is the Principal Investigator for the New Voices/Nuevas Voces project. She is an early childhood researcher at the FPG Child Development Institute, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, with more than 20 years of experience working on early childhood research and intervention in the United States and Latin America. Dina also serves as co-principal investigator for the Nuestros Niños Project funded by the U.S. Dept. of Education to conduct a national study of policies and practices of early childhood programs to address the needs of Latino children and families. She is a professional psychologist, with a Master's degree in Public Health and a doctoral degree in Education. Dina is a native of Peru, where she worked as university professor. She has lived in the United States (North Carolina), since 1991. Her areas of expertise include language development and assessment of second language learners, parental involvement in early childhood programs, language and culture in the early years. She is also a trained program evaluator and has extensive experience conducting professional development and parent education programs.

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Betsy Ayankoya is Co-Principal Investigator of the New Voices/Nuevas Voces Project and leads the technical assistance component of the project. She has worked has worked for the National Early Childhood TA Center at FPG Child Development Institute for over ten years providing consultation, training and technical assistance to early childhood projects and states addressing systems change related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. With nearly 25 years work experience, Betsy has developed expertise in the topics of cultural diversity, prejudice reduction, cross-cultural relations, personnel development and project administration. She lived in Nigeria for 4 and 1/2 years and taught undergraduate courses at the University of Ibadan. In addition, she has made presentations to local, state and national audiences. She holds degrees in speech-language pathology and special education.

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Christina Kasprzak is a TA Specialist and Evaluator for the New Voices/Nuevas Voces project. She collaborated in the development of the curriculum, conducts training and technical assistance, and conducted the evaluation of the project. She has worked for the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute for more than nine years, designing and conducting evaluation and technical assistance for programs that serve young children with disabilities ages birth through five years. Prior to moving to North Carolina, Christina worked as a case manager providing services for young children with disabilities and their families. Her areas of expertise are program evaluation, quality assurance, and cultural diversity. Christina has a Master's degree in Sociology.

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