Our Team

Melani Ladygo has a Bachelor’s Degree in Child Development from California State University, Los Angeles. She has been teaching Parent-Infant Guidance™ classes for well over a decade and is teaching throughout the San Fernando Valley, as well as at her home in Tarzana. In addition to the classes and consulting she offers, Melani has presented workshops on Magda Gerber’s Educaring® Approach in a variety of conference settings. She first fell in love with the Approach in a child care center where she worked as an Infant/Toddler Master Lead Teacher for many years. She feels strongly that this Approach strengthens bonds between parents and children, and fosters the development of competent, capable, and creative children.

Marielle Cruz serves as an Administrative Assistant, providing day-to-day administrative support to RIE. She brings 6 years of human resources and administrative experience, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from the University of Santo Tomas and is a Certified Mental Health First Aider. Her background gives her a detail-oriented, people-first approach to keeping operations organized and running smoothly.

Marielle is a furmom to three dogs who keep her days lively and fun. In her free time, she enjoys exploring her creative side through art and writing.

Abhirami Gunasingam, M.A., is the Chair of the RIE® Board of Directors and a RIE® Associate with over a decade of experience in Early Childhood Education. She owns and operates a licensed home-based early childhood education program in the United States, working directly with children birth to five and their families. Her daily practice as an Educarer® grounds her leadership — positioning her to hold strategy and culture in the same hand, and to ask not only what RIE® is building, but whether how it is being built reflects who RIE® is.

Abhirami leads with a clear conviction: that Magda Gerber’s Educaring® Approach belongs to a worldwide community, and that RIE® must reflect the full breadth of that community in how it governs, communicates, and grows. She is committed to amplifying the voices and stories of RIE® Associates across every country where this work is being carried forward, and to building an organization where every member — at every career stage and in every geography — feels genuinely seen and included.

Hanny Purnomo Boyer, a mother of two RIE kids, has experienced firsthand the transformative nature of the Educaring approach. It has had an immeasurable impact on not only her children, but on her and her entire family.

Combined with her work as a visual storyteller with a BA in Graphic Design and MA in Filmmaking uniquely position her to capture the magic of the RIE approach and craft a compelling message that can connect with caregivers everywhere. She hopes to help RIE create meaningful content and distribute it through the channels that today’s parents and caregivers engage with the most.

Beth Middleton is a career caregiver in private family and group care environments. After attending the 2013 Los Angeles Winter Foundations course Beth continued her studies, becoming a RIE Associate in early 2021. Beth consults on a sliding scale with individuals and families, as well as in group care, community and conference settings. She enjoys sharing the life and relationship enriching benefits of our approach, traveling, music and comedy.

Susan North has been working with children and their families since completing UC Berkeley’s Early Childhood Education program in 1971. Her professional experience includes teaching and administration for Head Start, running parent/toddler programs, and directing full-day preschools. She was a Master Teacher with LA Unified’s Parent Education Division. More recently, she became trained in mediation and facilitation through the L.A. City Attorney’s Office Dispute Resolution Program, Ken Cloke’s Center for Dispute Resolution, and Centinela Youth Services. She opened her mediation practice in 2007. She has taught school-age kids to be peer mediators, and she volunteered with Southern California Family Mediation in the Child Dependency Courts. Now she divides time writing, providing parent education and parent coaching, and blogging. She is the author of The Opposite of Combat: A Parent’s Guide for Teaching Siblings How to Collaborate & Solve Their Own Conflicts.

Susan served on RIE’s board in the late 80s and early 90s. She worked not only with Magda Gerber herself but with so many of her founding colleagues. More recently she was a Trustee for fifteen years at Sequoyah School in Pasadena, CA. While on the Sequoyah board, the school expanded from a K-8 to include a high school. The same core values that drive RIE (respect for the child, allowing children to co-create their learning experience, and so forth) can be expressed all throughout a child’s education.

While a Trustee at Sequoyah, she also chaired the Committee on Trustees. Members of this committee serve as “talent scouts” for the board. As Chair, she learned how to seek, vet and approve a diverse group of passionate people with different skill sets to serve the school’s mission. Being on a highly effective board provided her with a thorough education about these matters.

Although she never became RIE certified herself, she learned so much from Magda during the many classes she sat in on with her. Afterwards, Magda was always so generous with her time. She will forever be grateful to Magda for what she taught her. Seeing babies through a respectful lens changed her. Magda’s way of seeing children has informed all of Susan’s ensuing work with families and children.

Elaine Ting serves as the volunteer Treasurer for Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE). With extensive experience in nonprofit and school finance, she brings integrity, transparency, and steady guidance to RIE’s financial operations.

A devoted mother of two teenagers, Elaine is deeply committed to Magda Gerber’s Educaring® Approach. She uses the RIE philosophy as the foundation of her parenting, championing its model of honoring children as capable individuals and building authentic, respectful relationships.

Beyond her work with RIE, Elaine is an independent equity investor and the Chief Financial Officer for the Give Mentor Love Foundation. She also previously spent many years as Treasurer at The Gooden School. Through all her roles, Elaine balances her financial expertise with a genuine passion for organizations that uplift families.

Dr. Laura Park Figueroa, PhD, OTR/L is the founder and CEO of Outdoor Kids OT, Inc., a nature-based pediatric occupational therapy practice, and Therapy in the Great Outdoors, LLC, an online multi-disciplinary hub for nature-based pediatric therapists. She is the creator of the ConTiGO Approach, an evidence-based treatment model for nature-based pediatric therapy. She is happy to serve on the RIE board and support the mission of authentic and respectful connection between children and their caregivers.

Nicole Vigliotti began her early childhood career in search of more meaningful work as an infant caregiver at Little Learners Lodge (LLL). After studying with Magda Gerber in 1998, Nicole received her Montessori 3-6 credentials in order to remain with her primary group of infants through Kindergarten. She continued her studies under the guidance of Anna Tardos and the team of experts at the Pikler Institute in Budapest. During her 25 years as Head of School at LLL, Nicole also served on both the RIE and Pikler USA Governing Boards, piloted the first East Coast RIE certified center, produced Beverly Kovach’s Being With Infants video training series, and chartered a public Montessori elementary school. Nicole primarily resides in Florida with her husband, David, and three sons but you will also find her spending plenty of time in South Carolina working with the frontline caregivers at Little Learners Lodge.

Bence Gerber was trained in physics, worked with scientific software that simulates complex physical phenomena as well as computer operating systems. He has experience with developing software, supporting applications, marketing, and selling high-end software and hardware systems. He also has been active with non-profit organizations and has served on several boards related to childcare. Bence claims to be the luckiest man in the world, having been raised by RIE’s founder, Magda Gerber. He has a son, a grandson, and a 15-month-old granddaughter.

Nicole Vigliotti began her early childhood career in search of more meaningful work as an infant caregiver at Little Learners Lodge (LLL). After studying with Magda Gerber in 1998, Nicole received her Montessori 3-6 credentials in order to remain with her primary group of infants through Kindergarten. She continued her studies under the guidance of Anna Tardos and the team of experts at the Pikler Institute in Budapest. During her 25 years as Head of School at LLL, Nicole also served on both the RIE and Pikler USA Governing Boards, piloted the first East Coast RIE certified center, produced Beverly Kovach’s Being With Infants video training series, and chartered a public Montessori elementary school. Nicole primarily resides in Florida with her husband, David, and three sons but you will also find her spending plenty of time in South Carolina working with the frontline caregivers at Little Learners Lodge.

Beth Middleton is a career caregiver in private family and group care environments. After attending the 2013 Los Angeles Winter Foundations course Beth continued her studies, becoming a RIE Associate in early 2021. Beth consults on a sliding scale with individuals and families, as well as in group care, community and conference settings. She enjoys sharing the life and relationship enriching benefits of our approach, traveling, music and comedy.

Debbie Bergstrom studied with Magda Gerber starting in 1986. She studied at the Emmi Pikler Institute, Budapest Hungary in 2008. She is a WestEd PITC Graduate. She has worked in Child and Youth programs for over 39 years. Debbie has worked with a variety of infant/toddler programs and has conducted seminars and training in Italy, New Zealand, Australia, and throughout the United States. She is currently an ECE Consultant.