About Diana Ganger

Diana Ganger is the co-founder and executive director of IDEAL18, an intergenerational initiative. She earned her bachelor’s degree in social work from Haifa University and her master of social work from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, specializing in gerontological social work and family therapy. In 1979, in Israel, Ganger implemented her first intergenerational program between a high school and the elder residents of a retirement home. Raised in Argentina, she grew up in an intergenerational relational culture. In 1985, Ganger became the director of the Moriah Early Childhood Center, where she created a nationally recognized model of a family-centered school, pioneering what she called a Family School. In the mid-1990s, she implemented an intergenerational program in an early childhood center, where grandparent figures regularly “adopt” and become “adopted” by classrooms, a program that continues to thrive. In 2004, Ganger became the program director of the Jewish Early Childhood Education Initiative, leading efforts to redefine how families and institutions can become co-visionaries and partners of excellence in education. She coaches and consults nationally and internationally as the director of DG1818ConsultingLLC and as the founder and executive director of IDEAL18.