Dear Colleagues,
It’s starting to look like the coming year holds promise for our profession. The number of early childhood teachers is ticking up, with 10,000 educators added over the past two months. And the states are stepping up to support the work these professionals do. Recently, 70 percent of New Mexico voters approved a ballot measure to put $150 million each year into programs for young children. And New Mexico isn’t the only place where early learning has bipartisan appeal. In Arkansas, incoming Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that she will invest more in early learning to raise reading scores by third grade. Elsewhere in the South, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey and South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster have prioritized early learning in their budget requests. And Maryland’s incoming Democratic governor, Wes Moore, has promised to provide free pre-K to all the state’s children in the next 10 years.
As part of this ambitious expansion of pre-K, Maryland will need to boost the number of early childhood teachers. So, the Council has partnered with the state education department to help Maryland teachers earn or renew their Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential™. The Maryland grant will cover the cost of applying and books through the summer of 2023, and it’s not all the Council is doing to give answers to a national dilemma: the current shortage of qualified teachers for our youngest learners.
We’re also making ongoing efforts to lift our profession up so it can raise children to the highest possible level in their growth. This year, we began holding an ECE Practitioner Day that provides sessions on professional growth and self-care, along with chances to network with peers. We’re coming out soon with a new edition of our textbook, Essentials for Working with Young Children, where we’ll put more focus on equity in early learning. We’re also working to advance equity for the members of our field as we reimagine the CDA® process to make it better and more user-friendly for teachers of all backgrounds.
That should benefit the CDA students who Danielle Lansing teaches at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, NM. “We’re part of the Bureau of Indian Education, so all our students are members of federally recognized tribes,” as Lansing tells us this month. Her focus is on helping the students connect to the values and beliefs of the communities from which they come. So, her program partners with parents to help foster needed changes in early learning and produce citizens who will preserve tribal culture. “Parents,” she explains, “need to have a seat at the table when we’re determining what educational theories and systems will be most beneficial for tribal children.”
And a similar plea appears in Parent Nation, a heartfelt book we review this month. Its author, Dana Suskind, is a pediatric surgeon, social scientist and mom who calls on parents to join their voices like seniors did to form AARP. Parents have strength in numbers and share a special interest that unites them: the trials they face to raise young children in a nation where public concern and funds have focused on K-12 schooling. America’s failure to help children and parents during the early years of life means we have skipped over the phase that lays the foundation for lifelong learning, as Suskind points out. And our lapse goes against the findings of science and our country’s founding ideal of social justice for all.
We all suffer because we have not yet come to recognize “early education as a public good” that helps children fulfill their promise, Suskind warns. And Dr. Calvin Moore agrees, as he explains this month in his blog. Free public preschool, he points out, makes the best use of limited education budgets, allows parents to work and builds bridges among children of diverse backgrounds. It also produces healthier, more productive adults who can contribute to the GDP—advantages the states have seen. The investments they’ve begun to make in early learning give us fresh hope for the future. It looks like our nation is on the way to fulfilling the promise of pre-K for all.
See you in 2023,
The Council for Professional Recognition
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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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