“My heart sings a song of thanks that I am permitted to do something for a long-abused race,” Charlotte Forten Grimké rejoiced during the Civil War. In 1861, after Union troops occupied parts of the coastal Carolinas, federal authorities recruited Grimké to teach newly freed Black children in South Carolina. After the war, she taught in Boston, then went on to work with the U.S. Treasury Department in recruiting more Black teachers.
Grimké was just one in a long line of Black women teachers who’ve left their imprint on the present day, and we should honor their achievements as we mark Black History Month this year. During Reconstruction, Black teachers, many of whom were former slaves, laid the foundation for public education throughout the South. In the early 20th century, they filled the ranks of reform groups like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Urban League and the National Association of Colored Women.
For these Black pioneers, education wasn’t simply a career. It was part of a broad social mission to empower their race, as a few examples show. In the 1930s, Fannie Williams established the first preschool for Black children in New Orleans, pioneered quality testing to measure students’ success and helped establish Child Health Day in our nation. Mary McLeod Bethune worked as a teacher before founding Bethune-Cookman College, which set educational standards for today’s Black colleges. She went on to become the highest-ranking woman in government when FDR made her head of the Division of Negro Affairs for the National Youth Administration.
And the list goes on to include Evangeline Ward, an early childhood professor who wrote books that set out a code of ethics for early childhood teachers and who served as the first executive director of the Child Development Associate® credentialing program. “A profession that remains alert to the services it renders and is willing to meet the challenges represented by new developments, knowledge and circumstances is indeed a profession,” she said. “The CDA® represents a development in a profession that has begun to take charge of its own professionalism.”
These are words that still ring true for Evelyn K. Moore, a living legend in the early childhood field. Moore worked as a founding teacher in the Perry Preschool Project, a seminal program of the sixties that proved the value of high-quality early learning for underserved Black children. She went on to cofound the National Black Child Institute in 1971, when the idea for the CDA first dawned at the yearly meeting of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. “I was involved with it from the beginning,” she recalled, “and was part of the discussion that led it to include academic coursework and allowed CDA students to earn college credits. My fight was as much for the educators as for the children because you have more portability and opportunity if you’re a credentialed teacher.”
The CDA also opened doors for people who otherwise wouldn’t have entered the teaching field, Moore pointed out. And I know what she meant because earning a CDA launched me on a career that brought me to my current role as Council CEO. I’m also keenly aware of the key role that Black women have played in my own past. My mother was a teacher’s aide at Head Start, which I attended as a child. And after high school, I, too, went to work there at the urging of my aunt. As I advanced my education and career, I had mentors who were Black women.
In fact, my heroes include the many women of color, like my mom, who work in our nation’s early childhood settings. They don’t receive the pay they deserve, a problem for all in our field, and probably won’t appear in history books like the educational pioneers I’ve discussed. But these unsung heroes will change the history of our nation by helping Black children build a better future. The National Bureau of Economic Research has shown that Black children who have one Black teacher in their early learning days have higher expectations for themselves, are more likely to graduate high school and have a greater chance of gaining stable employment.
So, the efforts our nation’s Black women make in the early childhood field also have a strong social impact. The work they do prepares the next generation to make a difference, according to Marian Wright Edelman, a great Black activist and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund. “Education,” she said, “is for improving the lives of others and leaving the community and world better than you found it.”
That’s because education builds hope, as Charlotte Forten Grimké saw in the 1860s while teaching young children in South Carolina. “The long, dark night of the past, with all its sorrows and fears, was forgotten,” she said. “As for the future, the eyes of these freed children see no clouds in it. Instead, it is full of sunlight”—words that make me think of what I often hear our teachers say: “I love to see the light in children’s eyes when they learn something new.” So, let’s celebrate the many Black women who now fill young children with faith that brighter days are just ahead. They deserve to hear a song of thanks this Black History Month.
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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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