Barbara Dalio is the Founder and CEO of Dalio Education. Dalio Education collaborates with high schools, youth-serving organizations, and communities across Connecticut to advance positive outcomes for young people. She also serves as Co-Founder and Director of Dalio Philanthropies.

Barbara was born in New York, grew up in Spain, and graduated from the University of Madrid. She returned to the United States in her mid-twenties when she worked at the Whitney Museum in New York prior to getting married.  Raising four sons in Connecticut, Barbara saw firsthand the challenges students, families, and educators face on a daily basis.

Barbara has focused her philanthropic work on implementing data-driven strategies to help the 119,000 young people in Connecticut who are at-risk or disconnected from school, employment, and the communities in which they live.

That focus led Barbara to develop two signature initiatives,– the Connecticut RISE Network and the Connecticut Opportunity Project – to address the numerous needs of these young people.

In 2023, Dalio Education commissioned a report entitled “Connecticut’s Unspoken Crisis” which, for the first time, quantified the number of young people in Connecticut who are at-risk or disconnected.  The report generated positive statewide media coverage, and was well-received by educators, policymakers and leaders in the nonprofit community.

In recognition of her collaborative work, Barbara has received the Connecticut Association of Schools’ 2018 Distinguished Friend of Education Award, the City of New Haven’s Community Care Award, and the Meriden Board of Education’s Community Support Award. In 2024, the Connecticut Education Association and the Connecticut Education Foundation awarded Barbara the CEA Excellence in Education Advocacy Award. She also received the 2025 Anne S. Leonhardt Award from Fairfield County Community Foundation’s Fund for Women and Girls, and was recognized by the Center for Children’s Advocacy as a 2025 Champions of Children honoree.

Barbara and her husband, Ray, live in Connecticut and have four sons, five grandsons, and two granddaughters.