Darla Gundler

Darla is the Associate Director of the Early Childhood Intervention Personnel Center for Equity at the Federation for Children with Special Needs. Prior to joining ECIPC-Equity she spent over 23 years as Director of the Early Intervention Parent Leadership Project at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. In that role she led a project that worked with families currently receiving early intervention services to assist them to develop their skills and knowledge to become leaders in early childhood, one target population was to families from racially, ethnically, and linguistically diverse backgrounds to participate in family leadership trainings and to learn how to advocate for services. Over the past 30 years she has volunteered at the Federation for Children with Special Needs in a variety of capacities, including the annual conference, training on Basic Rights in rural areas and many other initiatives. She is the Past- President of the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC). Darla joined the ECIPC-Equity Leadership Team to enhance Family Partnerships within state leadership teams and higher education programs focusing on workforce development. She works to promote family partnerships, leadership development, and utilization of technology. Her life experiences as a parent of a child with a disability fuels her passion to support policies and practices that enhance the lives of all families.