Meet the experts

Darneshia Allen offers over 30 years of experience working with young children. Her background includes intensive work with families and communities, including years of experience in Early Care and Education, which ultimately led to development of a Pre-K 4 program. She joined ZERO TO THREE in 2009 and has supported communities implementing the Safe Babies approach in many roles. She currently serves the project as the Manager of Training and Technical Assistance Integration for Safe Babies.

Tonya Hayes is a speech-language pathology assistant at Sprout Pediatrics. She holds a Master of Education degree from the University of South Carolina as well as a Bachelor's degree in Speech Correction from Columbia College. She has served children in the public schools for over ten years, led the Parent Education and Family Literacy program, and served as an early interventionist with the SC School for the Deaf and the Blind. She has a niche serving children and families of late talkers as well as those on the Autism Spectrum. Tonya and her husband enjoy travel, mentoring newlyweds at their church, and enjoying their adult sons and daughter-in-law.

Shane Meserve is a trainer, consultant, and subject matter expert on subjects such as mass violence, peer support, trauma-informed care, self-care, supportive mental health programming, child abuse prevention, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and more. She spent almost 20 years administering school-age childcare programs and summer camps and, most recently, managed a mental health project for survivors of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting event in Las Vegas.  She has a Master of Public Administration from California State University, Northridge. Shane is a proud 4th generation Californian and has lived on the Central Coast since 2013.