Mary A. Moran, PhD, is the Director of Child Wellness for The Fedcap Group and oversees the implementation of research-based interventions for young children and their families across a diverse array of companies and programs. Dr. Moran also serves as the Executive Director of Easterseals Rhode Island and Easterseals New York, companies of The Fedcap Group. She is a developmental psychologist who has spent her career working on behalf of young children and their families–especially those who are marginalized by low income, atypical development, cultural differences and other challenges.
Dr. Moran spent more than 15 years consulting with governments and programs internationally, in low- and middle-income countries to address: deinstitutionalization; early childhood programs in natural and manmade disasters; the integration of nutrition and early childhood programs; parenting programs; inclusive education; the initiation of early intervention for infants and toddlers with disabilities; and instituting nationwide preschool programs. She worked with universities, internationally, to initiate undergraduate and graduate programs in early childhood education and to reform social work education. For UNICEF, Dr. Moran authored the organization’s training resources on inclusive preschool education—used worldwide.
Dr. Moran served on the Learning Metrics Task Force of the Brookings Institute and UNESCO and on the Global Indicators Task Force on Early Childhood for UNICEF. Her model for successful transition from early childhood programs to primary school is included in the Best Practices in Transition compendium by Dr. Sharon Lynn Kagan of Columbia Teachers College. Dr. Moran led the collection of US data for the UN worldwide study on violence in the lives of children. She is known for her community planning work employing child participation strategies.
In the US, at the helm of an early childhood agency, Dr Moran partnered with Harvard Graduate School of Education in a national collaborative study that included her agency’s Early Head Start program. Her career in the States also includes the provision of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities and their families. In addition, she has led early intervention programs in multiple settings; developmental evaluation clinics in a medical school; and developmental services in neonatal intensive care units. Dr. Moran has taught on the undergraduate and graduate levels at several universities and a medical school in the fields of early intervention, developmental assessment, curriculum planning, developmental pediatrics, stress and coping throughout the lifespan, infant-toddler development, and child development. She coordinated a national training project on early intervention and was a co-founder of one of the first infant mental health associations.