Board of Directors

Dan is an accomplished entrepreneur, chief executive, and attorney. He is currently senior counsel to the law firm Whiteford Taylor & Preston and serves as a board member and senior advisor to companies in diverse industries. He was previously of counsel to the national law firm Greenberg Traurig, LLP.

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Dan’s background spans multiple industries and roles, including his role as founding partner of Ibex Financial; renewable and retail energy; satellites; advertising media; agriculture, including his tenure as chairman of Phytonix, a hemp seed supplier; and brownfield redevelopment, including his founding of MGP Environmental and serving as general counsel to Viridian Partners, both brownfield developers. He brings to each relationship his strategic leadership, operations, structuring, and management experiences, as well as an innate sense of people and how to efficiently get things done.

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Dan holds an LL.M. in taxation from New York University School of Law, a J.D. from The American University Washington College of Law, and a B.A, from The American University.

Kris Amato is a relationship-driven, commercial lending specialist with over 25 years of experience. Her deep understanding of business operations and efficient processes makes Kris a trusted advisor to business owners and top-level executives seeking holistic financial guidance. Kris's knowledge of treasury management, supply chain, trade cycles, FX, and lending options enables her to design solutions that empower businesses to thrive and succeed in a dynamic market.

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Kris started her career with JP Morgan Chase where she was formally credit trained and earned a Moody’s Lending Certification during her eight years with HSBC Bank. In addition to her expertise in Commercial and Industrial lending, Kris provided commercial real estate financing during her 9-year tenure with TD Bank. Currently, Kris serves as an SVP, with BankUnited. 

Kris expresses her passion for helping others as a mentor to other female professionals, as a volunteer for several charities including her 9 years as a board member for The Child Center of NY.  Kris is inspired by her young daughter and son and her supportive husband. She is actively involved in her children’s school events, church, and coaching youth athletics.

Paul Avvento is the Chief Financial Officer of Gabrielli Truck Sales and has held this position since 1990. Previously, he worked as a vice president for lending for several banks for eight years and he worked for seven years as a senior credit analyst for Dun and Bradstreet. He earned his associate degree in business from Kingsborough Community College.  Paul is married and has two children.

Benjamin Bahr is a portfolio manager at First Eagle Investments. Previously, he was a member of the investment team for Alliance Bernstein’s value funds and an investment banker at Deutsche Bank. He earned a BBA in Finance from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA from Columbia University. Benj lives in Dobbs Ferry, New York, with his wife, Anne, and three sons. He is a founding member of the Junior Outreach Committee (now Associate Board) of The Child Center of NY and with his wife, Anne, created and organized dodgeball benefits, which attracted teams from firms throughout Manhattan.

Dr. Barbara Deli grew up in Pittsburgh and moved to NYC after medical school.  In medical school, she was involved in health outreach in the struggling neighborhoods of West Philadelphia and then did her residency in New York at Beth Israel.  Now Barbara works at Mount Sinai St Luke’s and West Hospitals, mainly with the under-served, Medicaid (and uninsured) population that visits the hospital and its clinics.  In the clinics, she works most closely with high-risk obstetrics patients and patients desiring contraception.  She has two young children with her husband.

Joseph Di Salvo is the founder and managing partner of Di Salvo Howard PLLC (formerly Di Salvo Group PLLC), a boutique law practice that primarily serves as general counsel to private equity-backed businesses focused exclusively on small and middle markets competing in a wide variety of industries. Prior to forming the firm, Joe was vice president and general counsel for Glaceau, Inc., where he played an integral role in the development and execution of the company’s growth and exit strategy to the Coca-Cola Company, which purchased Glaceau in 2007 for $4.1 billion. Joe began his professional career as a trial attorney with the law firm of McCarter & English, LLP, where he was a founding member of the firm’s New York Office. He helped lead the firm’s expansion into the New York marketplace, eventually becoming the youngest partner elected in the 165-year history of the firm. Joe is also enjoying his seventh year as a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, teaching Professional Responsibility and Leadership, through which he aims to inspire future generations of business leaders to be not only good businesspeople, but also good people in business. Recently, he produced and directed his first film, a documentary entitled Bronx Socrates, a tribute to Joe’s mentor and friend, Professor Bob Gurland. Born and raised in Middle Village, Queens, Joe now lives on Long Island with his wife Tina, two children, and their beloved dog, Finn.  He considers himself the luckiest man alive.

Christina serves as major account executive at LDI Color Toolbox, where she provides businesses with digital office solutions. In her role, she works with many nonprofit organizations, ensuring they have what they need to run their programs efficiently and evaluating where they can save money, with a deep awareness of what it takes to raise every dollar.

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Christina’s work with nonprofits began with her making wine baskets with donations from her family-owned vineyard and holding fundraisers at Jamesport Winery. She loves being able to connect her worlds by doing what she can with her resources and connections to assist in fundraising efforts. She believes in the message that success breeds more success: If you set attainable goals for yourself, you will see results, and that will inspire you to stay on that path and keep going toward success; and we all have room to grow and work together to motivate one another to become the best versions we can be. As a leader, these ideals are words she lives by, and she strives to be at least 1% better than she was yesterday, every day. She lives life with her children in mind and strives to ensure that everything she does is not only to provide for them, but also to set an example that she takes pride in them looking up to.

Allison Charles Greene was born in Trinidad and immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 9. She grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, and attended public schools in the area.

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Having begun her career in banking while attending college, Allison has more than 30 years of finance experience and now serves as a cash management senior sales officer and vice president of Flushing Bank. She is also a founding member of My Sister’s Keepers, a mentoring group for young girls, in Brownsville, Brooklyn. As a Child Center board member, she brings a wealth of finance experience and community service passion. She enjoys being an advocate for the people The Child Center serves while helping to identify new opportunities to leverage The Child Center in additional communities.

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Allison holds an MBA from Mercy College and is the mother of two young adult sons.

Richard Jay joined the board of The Child Center in 1998 and became president in 2008. He is the chairman and principal of Port City Air in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He is the former president and chairman of Display Technologies LLC (located in College Point, Queens), which he sold to IMI plc (a global engineering group). Prior to this, Dick served as a senior marketing executive for many major companies. He received his bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and his MBA in Marketing and Finance from the University of Chicago. He lives in Manhattan and Connecticut with his wife and is a proud father of two daughters and grandfather of four.

Jennifer Milacci is currently an entrepreneur working on a fitness-related startup after a nearly 30-year career in the asset management industry. She formerly worked at Renaissance Technologies, Banc of America Securities, Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and Putnam Investments in Boston. Jen received her B.S. from Carnegie Mellon University and her MBA from NYU Stern School of Business. 

She is a CFA Charterholder, a board member of The Child Center of NY since 2007, a member of the CFA Institute, New York Society of Security Analysts (NYSSA), and Financial Women’s Association of New York, and a Sustaining Angel of 100 Women in Finance. Jen resides in Manhattan with her husband and two children.

Joanne Persad hails from Trinidad, where she spent afternoons and weekends assisting in the family grocery store. She experienced firsthand the level of commitment and hard work it takes for a business owner to be successful. Today she serves as the Chief Operating Officer at the Queens Chamber of Commerce, where her focus is ensuring that the Chamber provides every resource available to small business owners in the borough, so they can work toward and enjoy the success her family did. Before joining the Queen's Chamber of Commerce, Joanne served in project management, government affairs, and public relations at the corporate office of Waste Management, the leading national waste management solutions company.

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Joanne immigrated to the United States at the age of 27 so that her children would have every opportunity to reach their full potential. She brings this commitment to children to her work on the Board of Directors at The Child Center, and she lends a valuable perspective to conversations, as she can look at issues analytically, but also through the lens of someone on the receiving end of policies and changes.

Maalika Rastogi is currently a director and senior group manager at Citigroup, in a Global Program Management Office responsible for overseeing a $250mm portfolio of regulatory commitments. Prior to that she served as a senior vice president in Franchise Risk & Strategy – Plan Implementation, also at Citigroup. Her previous experience includes internal strategy roles with UBS and Pfizer, as well as management consulting with Booz & Company and Katzenbach Partners. Maalika earned both a bachelor's degree in economics and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. She is fluent in Hindi and conversant in Spanish and French. Ms. Rastogi was raised in Forest Hills, Queens, and now resides in Manhattan. She had been involved with The Child Center of NY since 2001, having served as the chairperson of the Asian Outreach Committee from 2009 to 2017, and as an advisor and mentor to the Child Center's Associate Board since 2017. 

Craig Ratigan is an SVP, and regional vice president for the Manhattan II region for TD Bank. In this role, he manages a team of 11 commercial relationship managers, small business relationship managers, and commercial sales associates. Craig has worked at TD Bank for more than 16 of his 19+ years in banking. He began his banking career as a credit analyst intern at Commerce Bank. He was promoted to credit analyst upon graduating from St. John’s University. Craig became a portfolio manager before being promoted to relationship manager after spending seven years in credit management. As a relationship manager, he has serviced customers in a wide range of industries including wholesalers, manufacturers, doctors and dentists, supermarkets, nonprofits, commercial real estate developers and hotel operators. Craig completed his MBA at St. John’s University and the Leadership in Action Harvard Business School Management Module. In addition to his work at TD Bank, Craig is involved in the community through various charities. Craig serves as the treasurer of the HeartShare School and a member of the board of directors at The Child Center of NY. He formerly served on the board of the Long Island City Partnership and the Banking & Law Committee at the Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Joshua Rosenthal is a licensed psychologist (NY/NJ/FL) specializing in child and family treatments. He founded Manhattan Psychology Group (MPG) and grew it from a solo practice in 2008 into a multidisciplinary organization of 350+ clinicians before selling to ARC Health in 2023.

He continues to serve as CEO of MPG under ARC, focusing on growth, leadership, and company culture—overseeing clinical operations, service expansion, referral pathways, and team performance across mental health, testing, ABA, and special education services. Josh also serves as the partner liaison for ARC, supporting partner practices and helping drive platform-wide alignment, communication, and growth. In addition, he invests in and consults with behavioral health companies, founders, and PE-backed groups on scaling outpatient services and improving access to care.

Josh grew up in Madison, Connecticut. After his parents divorced when he was young, a formative experience with his own therapist sparked his commitment to helping children and families—a mission that continues to guide his work today. This same motivation fuels his interest in joining the Child Center of NY board, where he hopes to use his operational and clinical experience to expand access and improve the quality of care for children and families across NYC.

He holds a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from the University of Delaware and a doctorate in psychology from LIU–CW Post. Josh lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with his wife of 20 years and 10-year-old daughter. They love to travel, and he’s a loyal Knicks fan.

Rosalie Joy (Sally) Schwartz, Ph.D., has been an associate professor at Touro University's Graduate School of Education for approximately 10 years. Prior to that, but after retiring from the New York City and State Departments of Education—where she was a full-time employee for approximately 33 years—and while she was an adjunct professor at Touro’s Graduate School of Education, Dr. Schwartz was employed as the principal of a private special education school that accepts some of the most severely special needs children in New York City.  

As a full-time employee of the New York City and State Departments of Education, her positions included being an early childhood teacher, a reading teacher/coordinator, a funded program manager and competitive grant writer, a principal in regular and special education schools in the City and on Long Island, and an assistant superintendent/director of literacy for the City. The title of Dr. Schwartz's doctoral dissertation is, "The Effects of Visual Scanning and Classification Training on Piagetian Tasks."  In her free time, Dr. Schwartz does volunteer work, sings cabaret, and enjoys dancing, scuba diving, and skiing. 

Ilene Siscovick is a professional services business leader and Partner Emeritus at Mercer, a business of Marsh & McLennan, with extensive experience in the design and implementation of innovative workforce programs. She spent more than 20 years in Seattle leading business development and operations for the Pacific Northwest talent business. In 2014 she relocated to New York, where she developed a marque talent solution, Career Frameworks, and led a global team of consultants.

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Ilene was inspired to join the Child Center Board by the work of her late mother, Beatrice Jacobs Callan, a New York City schoolteacher. Ms. Callan developed a groundbreaking work-study program for immigrant children that was recognized and mainstreamed by the NYC Board of Education.

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Ilene is married to Dr. David Siscovick, Professor Emeritus, University of Washington School of Medicine and School of Public Health, Senior Research Scientist at the New York Academy of Medicine, and an expert on the determinants of health equity. They have three children and 11 grandchildren, all living in the NY Metro area. The Siscovicks reside in New York City and have an apartment in Jerusalem. Ilene holds a B.A. degree from Goucher College and an MBA from the University of Washington.

Kylie Springs, a double alumna of St. John’s University, is a first-year real estate associate with Farrell Fritz, P.C. in the firm’s Uniondale, New York, office. In this role, Kylie works with landlords, tenants, buyers, and sellers of commercial, retail, and industrial properties, and with investors and stakeholders in both simple and complex property transactions, such as development transactions, leasing transactions, purchase and sale transactions, and financings on both lender and borrower sides.

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Throughout Kylie’s college and law school experience, she maintained a focus on raising awareness and creating dialogue on social issues and on giving back. During law school, she served on the Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development (JCRED) as a staff member and associate managing editor. During her years at St. John’s, she also volunteered at the Briarwood Family Residence, a temporary housing shelter. Working with children there gave her a firsthand look at how even the smallest of efforts can turn a child’s life around. As a Child Center board member, she is honored to contribute to efforts that help change the trajectory for thousands of young people every year. In addition to her work as an attorney, Kylie also teaches indoor cycling part-time and is the head instructor at Cyclebar. Her passions include health and fitness and traveling.

Gelvina Rodriguez Stevenson is the General Counsel, Corporate Secretary, and Vice President of Government Relations at the Wistar Institute, a national cancer center. Previously, Gelvina was an Associate General Counsel at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), where she advised the hospital on the legal aspects of medical research and scientific innovation. Gelvina also provides legal support to healthcare providers in several areas including privacy, HIPAA, billing, controlled substances, and obtaining valid informed consent from minors. Before working at CHOP, Gelvina was an Associate University Counsel at Weill Cornell Medical College, a Legislative Attorney for the New York City Council, an associate at Chadbourne & Parke LLP, and a law clerk to The Honorable Audrey B. Collins, U.S. District Court, Central District of California. Gelvina also currently works as an Adjunct Professor at the Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, where she teaches a course on pharmaceutical law.