Who We Are
I have spent more than 20 years at the intersections of mental health, education, SPED service delivery and high-performance coaching. I have participated in every aspect from delivering services to leading the teams.
I have watched families try to navigate a system that can feel like a maze, holding onto the hope that someone has their child. And I have seen what becomes possible when the right people show up, consistently, and do what they said they would do.
That is why Brighter Horizons Group began. It’s important that no school leader has to choose between meeting compliance and serving students. The partnership I love working with are the ones who tell me the truth about what is hard, ask for what they need, and want to solve it together. That is the relationship we build with every school: open, consistent, and honest, with someone always watching the things that are easy to miss.
– Dulce Torres, CEO and Founder of Brighter Horizons Group
The Team
Dulce Torres
Before founding Brighter Horizons Group, Dulce served for over 20 years as a psychotherapist, consultant, and clinical mentor, supervising and training the next generation of counselors while providing direct mental health services to children, adolescents, families, college students, couples, and adults. In 2008, she deepened her focus by becoming a trained life coach and specialist in ADHD and executive function, adding coaching credentials to her clinical foundation.
Today she serves as the leader as CEO, a coach, consultant to school administrators and mentors her team. She is bilingual and a recognized keynote speaker.
She has served on the national board of CHADD and currently coordinates the North Texas chapter. She is an active member of ACO, Attention Deficit Disorders Association Southern Region (ADDA-SR), Texas Counseling Association (TCA), Hispanic Women’s Network of Texas (HWNT), and serves as co-founder of a non-profit serving women.
Tanya De La Vega
For 27 years, Tanya has worked at the point where special education services, documentation, and compliance come together. She writes IEPs and facilitates and participates in ARD meetings, with a clear understanding of how much depends on getting both the services and the documentation right.
At Brighter Horizons Group, Tanya writes IEPs, facilitates ARD meetings, manages evaluation and annual review timelines, and audits special education files to identify issues before they become compliance problems. Just as importantly, she trains and coaches the SPED staff already in the building—both one-on-one and in small groups—helping the people closest to students become more confident and capable with every meeting.
For Tanya, compliance is much more than paperwork. Every timeline protected and every document completed correctly represents one student, in one school, receiving the services they were promised. That commitment is what drives the level of excellence she brings to her work.
Kassandra Overstreet Silva
Kassandra is an LPC Associate and National Certified Counselor (NCC) who provides counseling evaluations for students who may qualify for counseling as a related service. She specializes in supporting students with trauma, ADHD, neurodivergence, and executive functioning needs.
At Brighter Horizons Group, Kassandra conducts counseling evaluations and Functional Behavior Assessments (FBAs), provides counseling services aligned with students’ IEPs, and consults with teachers to help translate student needs into practical support in the classroom. She also leads social skills groups and serves as an important member of the Crisis Support Team.
Kassandra works with students ages five and older, including students in grades 9–12. Her work goes beyond providing a counseling service. She helps schools better understand what may be driving a student’s behavior, identify the support that student needs, and give teachers strategies they can use to help the student succeed.
Carla Proctor
Carla brings extensive experience across school leadership, special education, literacy, and student evaluation to the schools she serves. Her background includes roles as a principal, Master Reading Teacher, and educator in elementary, gifted and talented, special education, secondary reading, English, and English as a Second Language.
At Brighter Horizons Group, Carla conducts psychoeducational and specific learning disability evaluations, including evaluations for dyslexia, dysgraphia, and intellectual disabilities. She also contributes her expertise as a member of the multidisciplinary team conducting autism evaluations.
Carla is a nationally certified Educational Diagnostician, a Texas Registered Professional Educational Diagnostician, a Licensed Dyslexia Therapist, and a Certified Academic Language Therapist. That combination of diagnostic expertise and firsthand school experience allows her to look beyond assessment results and understand the student within the context of the classroom, the school, and the supports needed to help that student succeed.
Mello-Dee Capps
M.S., LPC
Mello-Dee Capps is a Texas Licensed Professional Counselor with six years of experience supporting students in special education. At Brighter Horizons Group, she provides special education counseling both virtually and in person and represents counseling as a related service in ARD meetings.
Mello-Dee conducts counseling evaluations as part of the Full and Individual Evaluation process and works with students in grades K–12, including students with ADHD, autism, emotional disabilities, and specific learning disabilities. Her work with charter schools across Texas is grounded in practical, student-centered approaches that include cognitive behavioral therapy, solution-focused brief therapy, and self-determination strategies.
She also contributes to the profession beyond her direct work with students. Mello-Dee has presented at Region 10’s Illuminate the Path conference in 2023, 2024, and 2025, has participated in a podcast discussion with Dulce Torres on ADHD, and has supervised a graduate student through practicum and internship.
Mello-Dee brings both clinical skill and a strong understanding of the special education process to her work. Her goal is to help schools understand what students need, ensure counseling services are appropriately connected to the IEP, and give students the support they need to make meaningful progress.
Haley Santiago
Haley helps keep the day-to-day operations of Brighter Horizons Group organized, accurate, and moving forward. She ensures the team’s work is appropriately documented, supports invoicing, maintains records and files, and assists staff and clients with the administrative details that keep services running smoothly.
She also supports Brighter Horizons Group’s social media efforts, helping communicate the work and resources the team provides to schools and their communities.
Much of Haley’s work happens behind the scenes, but it directly supports the team’s ability to serve schools well. By keeping documentation, invoicing, records, and communication organized, she helps the Brighter Horizons Group team stay focused on what matters most—supporting schools and the students they serve.
Jose Torres
Jose serves as a trusted business advisor to Brighter Horizons Group CEO Dulce Torres, bringing an analytical perspective to decisions about the company’s operations, growth, contracts, and client relationships. As an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society (ACAS), he brings more than 10 years of data analysis experience and three years of predictive modeling experience to that work.
Jose works closely with Dulce to evaluate opportunities, identify improvements, review contracts, and contribute to negotiations and important business decisions. He also stays connected with the broader Brighter Horizons Group team, helping turn what the team is experiencing day to day into practical operational improvements.
His contribution extends into technology as well. Jose develops custom, cost-effective solutions that streamline BHG’s operations, including the company’s custom time-tracking application and other internal business tools that he continues to maintain and improve.
Jose brings together data, technology, business judgment, and an understanding of how Brighter Horizons Group actually operates. That combination gives Dulce and the team another perspective when making decisions—and helps BHG continually improve how it supports its schools and students.
Credentials and Affiliations
Business founded in 2020
All Professionals hold an active Texas credentials and current background checks
Member of Texas Council of Administrators of Special Education – TCASE
Sponsor and Member of Texas Charter School Association – TCSA
Approved TEFA Vendor 2026