Ricardo Alcalá’s parents came to California so they could work in the fields. Back home in Mexico, neither of them had gone beyond second grade. Their two oldest children had dropped out of high school, and one was sentenced to prison for life. Ricardo’s prospects also looked poor by the time he was 13. Then, when he turned 14, he had a revelation that convinced him he could reach for more. A Hispanic teacher told him he was too smart for pre-algebra and should move up. “For some reason, that simple act and belief changed my perception of school and life,” he recalls. “The teacher was the first person who saw some good in me.”
Now Ricardo is a high school Spanish teacher who also looks for the good in his students, many from poor Hispanic families like his. And we need more teachers like him, especially for young learners, who are still forming their sense of identity and self-worth. Hispanic children who have Hispanic teachers tend to have more interest in school, fewer suspensions, better test scores and higher college attendance rates. It makes a difference when children have teachers who speak their language and come from their culture, extensive research shows. I saw this for myself because I once served many Hispanic families as an administrator at Head Start and as CEO of Plaza de la Raza, which fosters Hispanic culture and arts for families in East Los Angeles, California.
Having a teacher who looks like you gives children a head start in school and life, as Alcalá came to see. And that’s becoming even more important as the number of Hispanics in our country continues to soar. Yet the number of Hispanic teachers hasn’t kept up. More than a quarter of the nation’s public-school students are Hispanic, but Hispanic teachers and administrators make up less than half of the educator workforce. This imbalance points to the need to remove roadblocks that stop prospective teachers from earning the degrees and credentials they need.
So, we at the Council are doing our share to boost the ranks of Hispanic early childhood teachers. We make nearly all our content available in Spanish. We profile Hispanic early childhood teachers here in CounciLINK, including Javier Nicasio, a CDA instructor who is featured in this month’s edition. You’ll have the chance to meet him at our Early Educators Leadership Conference, where our sessions will include a talk on building career pathways to help Hispanic teachers excel.
Our efforts are making an impact, but we need more programs like the one in Charlotte, North Carolina, where the Hispanic population has grown at exponential rates. So, the Charlotte Bilingual Preschool has partnered with Piedmont Community College to grow the number of bilingual teachers. Thanks to generous grants, family members of students are now able to earn early childhood degrees. And the program fills a pressing need because language barriers often cause young Hispanic learners to fall behind. It will also open doors for Hispanic parents by getting them qualified for the early childhood education field.
And this month, Birdwell Dual Language Immersion School in Tyler, Texas, opened doors for discussion when it kicked off Hispanic Heritage Month by having the students dress up in native clothes and join in a Mexican folk dance called the raspa. “We expect the celebration to spark talks about different family traditions,” said Lizet Zavala, a Birdwell teacher, “and help students feel proud of who they are.”
There is cause for pride, insisted Lilyan Prado-Corrillo, an immigrant from Guatemala and a bilingual specialist for grade school children. This month she was the keynote speaker at a Hispanic Heritage Month event hosted by Martin Luther King, Jr. Recreation Center in Denton, Texas. During her speech, she described crossing the Rio Grande to get to the U.S. when she was five, a dramatic event she still recalls vividly decades later.
A rope was thrown to her family to cross the river , as Prado-Corrillo told the crowd. She depicted how high the currents were as her dad held her sister on his shoulders and she rode on the back of the man who smuggled them into the U.S. “If you get here as an immigrant, it requires bravery and ganas, or desire,” she said. “It requires sacrifices.” And her parents made them because they dreamed of giving their daughters a better future.
But coming to this country is just the beginning. Reaching the American dream also requires getting an education, and that depends on children having teachers who can communicate with them and understand their culture. So, we should celebrate teachers like this as we mark Hispanic Heritage Month, a time to reflect on folks who’ve made a contribution. And that includes Hispanic teachers, Ricardo Alcalá points out. “It’s really important for Hispanic children to look at a teacher and be able to think ‘you’re like my brother, you’re like my uncle, you’re like my dad.’ When children see someone who looks like them and has found success, they think they can succeed, too.”
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Vice President of People and Culture
Janie Payne is the Vice President of People and Culture for the Council for Professional Recognition. Janie is responsible for envisioning, developing, and executing initiatives that strategically manage talent and culture to align people strategies with the overarching business vision of the Council. Janie is responsible for driving organizational excellence through strategic talent practices, orchestrating workforce planning, talent acquisition, performance management as well as a myriad of other Human Resources Programs. She is accountable for driving effectiveness by shaping organizational structure for optimal efficiency. Janie oversees strategies that foster a healthy culture to include embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion into all aspects of the organization.
In Janie’s prior role, she was the Vice President of Administration at Equal Justice Works, where she was responsible for leading human resources, financial operations, facilities management, and information technology. She was also accountable for developing and implementing Equal Justice Works Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion strategy focused on attracting diverse, mission-oriented talent and creating an inclusive and equitable workplace environment. With more than fifteen years of private, federal, and not-for-profit experience, Janie is known for her intuitive skill in administration management, human resources management, designing and leading complex system change, diversity and inclusion, and social justice reform efforts.
Before joining Equal Justice Works, Janie was the Vice President of Human Resources and Chief Diversity Officer for Global Communities, where she was responsible for the design, implementation, and management of integrated HR and diversity strategies. Her work impacted employees in over twenty-two countries. She was responsible for the effective management of different cultural, legal, regulatory, and economic systems for both domestic and international employees. Prior to Global Communities, Janie enjoyed a ten-year career with the federal government. As a member of the Senior Executive Service, she held key strategic human resources positions with multiple cabinet-level agencies and served as an advisor and senior coach to leaders across the federal sector. In these roles, she received recognition from management, industry publications, peers, and staff for driving the creation and execution of programs that created an engaged and productive workforce.
Janie began her career with Verizon Communications (formerly Bell Atlantic), where she held numerous roles of increasing responsibility, where she directed a diversity program that resulted in significant improvement in diversity profile measures. Janie was also a faculty member for the company’s Black Managers Workshop, a training program designed to provide managers of color with the skills needed to overcome barriers to their success that were encountered because of race. She initiated a company-wide effort to establish team-based systems and structures to impact corporate bottom line results which was recognized by the Department of Labor. Janie was one of the first African American women to be featured on the cover of Human Resources Executive magazine.
Janie received her M.A. in Organization Development from American University. She holds numerous professional development certificates in Human Capital Management and Change Management, including a Diversity and Inclusion in Human Resources certificate from Cornell University. She completed the year-long Maryland Equity and Inclusion Leadership Program sponsored by The Schaefer Center for Public Policy and The Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. She is a trained mediator and Certified Professional Coach. She is a graduate of Leadership America, former board chair of the NTL Institute and currently co-steward of the organization’s social justice community of practice, and a member of The Society for Human Resource Management. Additionally, Janie is the Board Chairperson for the Special Education Citizens Advisory Council for Prince Georges County where she is active in developing partnerships that facilitate discussion between parents, families, educators, community leaders, and the PG County school administration to enhance services for students with disabilities which is her passion. She and her husband Randolph reside in Fort Washington Maryland.
Chief Operations Officer
Andrew Davis serves as Chief Operating Officer at the Council. In this role, Andrew oversees the Programs Division, which includes the following operational functions: credentialing, growth and business development, marketing and communications, public policy and advocacy, research, innovation, and customer relations.
Andrew has over 20 years of experience in the early care and education field. Most recently, Andrew served as Senior Vice President of Partnership and Engagement with Acelero Learning and Shine Early Learning, where he led the expansion of state and community-based partnerships to produce more equitable systems of service delivery, improved programmatic quality, and greater outcomes for communities, children and families. Prior to that, he served as Director of Early Learning at Follett School Solutions.
Andrew earned his MBA from the University of Baltimore and Towson University and his bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland – University College.
Chief Financial Officer
Jan Bigelow serves as Chief Financial Officer at the Council and has been with the organization since February of 2022.
Jan has more than 30 years in accounting and finance experience, including public accounting, for-profit and not-for-profit organizations. She has held management-level positions with BDO Seidman, Kiplinger Washington Editors, Pew Center for Global Climate Change, Communities In Schools, B’nai B’rith Youth Organization and American Humane. Since 2003, Jan has worked exclusively in the non-profit sector where she has been a passionate advocate in improving business operations in order to further the mission of her employers.
Jan holds a CPA from the State of Virginia and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Lycoming College. She resides in Alexandria VA with her husband and dog.
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