Diana Heldfond DiGia

Diana Heldfond is the Founder and CEO of Parallel, where she is redefining how students with learning and thinking differences are supported. Parallel partners with 200+ school districts nationwide and serves tens of thousands of students each year, delivering special education services designed around personalization, accountability, and real student progress. Parallel was built to solve the hardest problems in special education: chronic provider shortages, inconsistent quality, limited personalization, and little accountability for whether students are actually improving. Under Diana’s leadership, the company has raised $50M+ in capital over the past five years and built a fully proprietary, AI-driven platform that changes how providers work day to day. The platform enables highly individualized interventions, real-time progress tracking, and clinical decision support, allowing providers to deliver better care more efficiently while improving outcomes at scale. Parallel has recently published leading research showing that 98% of students working with Parallel providers make progress on par with or better than traditional models, and that 74%+ of students make faster progress than peers served through conventional classroom settings. These results reflect Parallel’s focus on what actually works for students, using data, evidence-based practice, and continuous iteration to drive meaningful outcomes rather than service volume and compliance needs alone. Diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD at just seven years old, Diana has lived experience working with many of the same specialists she now welcomes to the Parallel network. Prior to founding Parallel, she worked in M&A and Restructuring advisory at PJT Partners, spent time at the Aspen Institute, and co-founded a networking platform for college students. She holds a B.S. from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Diana’s work has been recognized by Forbes 30 Under 30, World Economic Forum (Technology Pioneer), Inc. 200 Female Founders, and the Digital Health Hub award at HLTH.