Diana Mendley Rauner, Ph.D.

Diana Mendley Rauner, Ph.D. is president of Start Early (formerly known as Ounce of Prevention Fund), a public-private partnership serving at-risk children and their families from before birth to age five. Start Early advocates for programs and policies that benefit young children and families; provides training to early childhood professionals; and engages in rigorous research and evaluation projects that contribute to best practices throughout the early childhood field.

Start Early partnered with the Buffett Early Childhood and other national funders to form the Educare Learning Network. Educare, a birth-to-five school on Chicago’s South Side, has become a national model for narrowing the academic achievement gap for low-income children. The Educare Learning Network has established another 17 Educare Schools across the country. In partnership with this same core group of national funders, Start Early created the First Five Years Fund, a federal advocacy and communications effort. 

Prior to joining Start Early, Rauner was a senior research associate at Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, where she worked with public agencies and private foundations on the evaluation of programs that support early childhood development. Rauner has a background in investment banking and previously worked for private equity investment firms in Chicago and San Francisco. She holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of Chicago, an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a BA from Yale University.