Dr. Diane Schwartz is the Director of the Early Childhood Special Education masters degree programs in the Department of Counseling, Research, Special Education and Rehabilitation. Dr. Schwartz came to Hofstra in the fall of 1994 after a long and distinguished career as a teacher in the field of special education and early childhood special education, including work with the New York City Board of Education and United Cerebral Palsy of Long Island. She was a founder of the New Interdisciplinary School in Suffolk County, a program for children birth through five with disabilities and their families.

More recently Dr. Schwartz has been instrumental in developing teacher preparation programs for inclusive education. For the past five years she has served on the New York State Higher Education Task Force for Quality Inclusive Schooling and has written a text "Diverse populations of gifted children: Meeting their needs in the regular classroom and beyond". Her most recent text, "Including children with special needs: A handbook for educators and parents" was published in 2005.

Dr. Schwartz continues to be actively involved in the education of young children with disabilities and is Past President of the New York State Division for Early Childhood for the Council of Exceptional Children.