President—Eric Schaps, PhD

Eric Schaps founded Developmental Studies Center (DSC) in 1980 to specialize in designing and evaluating educational programs that promote children’s social, ethical, and academic development. Dr. Schaps is the author of three books and over 60 book chapters and articles on substance abuse prevention, character education, school improvement, and program evaluation. He has been principal investigator on over $40 million in grants from public and philanthropic sources. He serves on several boards and advisory panels, including the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. Dr. Schaps earned his PhD in social psychology from Northwestern University, where he also did his undergraduate work.

Executive Vice President—Frank Snyder, PhD

Frank Snyder manages the day-to-day operations of DSC, bringing extensive experience in the education field to the position. Prior to joining DSC, he founded and directed the Child Services Division of eSCORE, served as the vice president and general manager for new ventures at Scholastic Publishing, and as vice president and chief technology officer for Golden Books Family Entertainment. He also worked in top-level positions at Simon and Schuster, McGraw-Hill, and California Test Bureau. Dr. Snyder received his PhD in psychometrics from the University of Illinois and his undergraduate degrees in psychology and mathematics from Colorado State University.

Director of Dissemination and Marketing—Jan Berman, MA

Jan Berman leads DSC’s national sales efforts. Prior to joining DSC, she served as the executive director of Summerbridge National, which educates underserved middle-school students during the summer. Ms. Berman was also the director of the media group for Tribune Education and the west coast director of product development for Scholastic. In addition, she has served as the manager of educational consultants at Houghton Mifflin and as an educational consultant at Harcourt Brace. Ms. Berman also brings direct experience as an educator to her role at DSC. She spent seven years teaching elementary school students in the Palo Alto Unified School District and served as the language arts coordinator for the district. Ms. Berman earned her master’s degree in curriculum from Claremont Graduate School and her undergraduate degree in English literature from Oberlin College.

Director of Program Development—Susie Alldredge, MA

Susie Alldredge directs the development of all of DSC’s in-school and after-school programs, which includes conceptualizing, writing, and piloting curriculum materials; supervising piloting, field-testing, and lesson revision based on feedback and observation; and developing staff development approaches. Ms. Alldredge was the lead author of the Making Meaning, Being a Writer, and Caring School Community programs, and helped to develop DSC’s mathematics program, Number Power. Ms. Alldredge is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara, and received her M.A. in Education from the University of California, Berkeley.

Director of Professional Development—Peter Brunn, MA

Peter Brunn is the Director of DSC’s professional development group overseeing the development of staff development materials and the provision of staff development services to schools and districts. His responsibilities include recruiting and training DSC’s contract staff developers and designing staff development institutes, workshops, and materials. Previously at DSC, he was the director of staff development, the assistant director of DSC’s Reading Project, and a staff developer. Before coming to DSC, he was a staff developer for the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project and worked in New York City public schools helping teachers implement reading and writing workshops in their classrooms. Mr. Brunn received his master’s degree in curriculum and teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, and his undergraduate degree in history from Marquette University.

Director of Editorial and Design—Lisa Kent Bandini

Lisa Kent Bandini directs the editorial, graphic design, and print production efforts for all of DSC's curriculum, professional development, and marketing materials. Before joining DSC, Ms. Bandini was the operations director for Chicago Educational Publishing Company where she managed the design and production of Science Companion, a grade K–5 science program. She had earlier served as production manager for Osborne Media, a division of McGraw–Hill and was the media manufacturing manager for Addison–Wesley Longman Publishing. She is a graduate of Hofstra University.

Controller—Rick Dinkle, CPA, MS

Rick Dinkle is a CPA with over 25 years of senior financial and inventory-management experience. He has responsibility for DSC’s accounting and finance operations and its sales orders/customer service activities. Mr. Dinkle received his master’s degree in accounting from the University of Pennsylvania, where he also did his undergraduate work.

Director of Information Technology—Nazar Yousif

Nazar Yousif heads DSC’s Information Technology Department and is responsible for analyzing the organization’s needs for technology solutions that support its business processes and the development of its programs and services. Mr. Yousif and his staff maintain DSC’s computer network and servers, purchase and maintain system hardware and software, manage DSC’s website and Web services, and provide training support for DSC staff. Mr. Yousif, who was previously a data and systems analyst, has been with DSC for over 15 years. He did his undergraduate work in physics at Harvey Mudd College, Claremont, CA.