Dana Brynelsen is a visionary in the field of early childhood intervention.

She has maintained for over forty years an unswerving dedication to the well-being of infants and families in British Columbia. She pioneered the Infant Development Program of BC and has been an educator in BC, Canada and abroad. She has focused on the individual in finding effective support and resources for families and children as well as for the professionals who serve them.

BC’s Infant Development Program grew out of the birth of a baby with Down Syndrome. When Pamela Vickers was born in l969 there were no early intervention services for her or her family. Conventional professional advice at that time was to institutionalize infants with intellectual disability. Pamela’s mother started the first Infant Development Program in Canada and in 1973 Dana Brynelsen was hired as supervisor of the Vancouver/Richmond IDP.

From 1975 to 2009, Ms. Brynelsen was instrumental in establishing programs throughout BC. Since then and under her stewardship there are 55 family-centred, home-based IDPs that have served more than 80,000 families. She received an Honourary Doctorate of Laws from UBC in 2004 in recognition of her work.

Inclusion rather than isolation of people with special needs has resulted in a stronger and more humane society. Dana Brynelsen has been an exemplary contributor to the movement toward a culture of opportunity for all and a more positive future for the generations yet to come.