Bobi’s daughter, Elise, inspired her to go into the early childhood education field. “I was teaching middle school in Canton, OH, 25 years ago when she was born with Down syndrome,” Bobi recalls. “So, I opted to home school Elise and give her the support that she needed.” It was a choice that led Bobi to use her teaching skills to also guide other families in home schooling their children. For nearly 13 years, she organized monthly activities and events for 15 families whose children ranged from infants to tenth graders. She counseled and encouraged parents, designed lesson plans custom-tailored to each young learner’s needs and assessed their progress.
This wasn’t home schooling online, as we’ve come to think of it in the age of COVID, Bobi points out. “We didn’t have as much technology then as we do now. Instead of computers, we had curriculum books. We went to concerts and nature centers. We would have gym time and write essays. We had the older children make speeches and engage in debates. We cooked together and went out to do community service.”
The point of this wide range of activities was to “make the children curious, independent learners,” Bobi explains. And the advances they achieved led Bobi to learn something, too, especially as she worked with the youngest age group. “Children, as I came to see could do a lot more than you expect if you give them quality education from a young age”—something she’d worked hard to do with Elise.
Her daughter’s progress convinced Bobi this was true and made her feel she could enter the workforce again. Her opportunity came in 2011, when there was an opening for an early childhood instructor at Buckeye Career Center in New Philadelphia, OH. “I felt it was a good fit because of the range of different age groups with which I had worked—everyone from the middle school students I’d taught, to the parents I’d guided and their young children,” Bobi says. And she decided to expand her range even further by guiding high schoolers at Buckeye toward becoming early childhood teachers.
At first, it was a challenge, despite her previous experience teaching in a public school. “I hadn’t been in a classroom for 13 years and a lot had changed,” she recalls. “When I was teaching before, all the work was on paper. Now, everything was about Google Docs and emails, so I had trouble even submitting my students’ grades,” Bobi says. But she caught on with help from Julie Brinkman, the Buckeye supervisor who’d held her position before as an early childhood instructor. “Julie did what a good leader should do. She guided and coached me until I was independent and could do my own thing,” Bobi says.
And a few years ago, she was ready to take on a new challenge when Ohio made a push for high schoolers to earn their Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential™. “I had taught some of the CDA® courses before,” Bobi recalls, “but I had never guided students through the entire credentialing process. There are a lot of parts that have to be lined up for the students to get their CDA by graduation. So, I was still learning to navigate the waters when I encountered Jenny, one of my first CDA students.”
Jenny still sticks out in Bobi’s mind, as she explains “because I learned how to help students get their CDA by working with her.” It helped that Jenny was very intuitive and seemed to grasp the dynamics of the CDA process: completing the CDA portfolio, arranging for someone to observe her in class and passing the test. “Whatever I asked for she did because I think she understood the benefit of the CDA and how it would make her more marketable in the early childhood field.”
That’s because the CDA covers such a wide range of topics in the early childhood profession, Bobi explains. “The coursework delves far beyond just going in the classroom and teaching children. You learn how to enhance the social and emotional skills of young learners. You learn how to talk to parents and why that matters. You learn how to deal with the community and find parents the resources they need. Most important of all you learn how to put all these pieces together by engaging in self-reflection. And that leads you to think hard about how you’re going to conduct yourself as a professional in the early childhood field.”
Getting all this self-knowledge and know-how requires a lot of time and work, but it’s worth it, as Bobi is convinced. And Buckeye students seem to agree. Last October, a number of them participated in Ohio’s first statewide Health and Human Services Signing Day by making a commitment to complete the CDA before graduation. “I was excited that these students made a commitment to completing the Child Development Associate training at Buckeye. This was a great first step towards a career in early childhood education,” Bobi says.
Still, signing a paper is not enough, as she admits, to succeed in the early childhood field. And neither is the ability to do the CDA coursework. “I have some students who are really organized and good at academics,” Bobi explains. “But then, they’re stiff in the classroom and clam up when it’s time to interact with the children. Meanwhile, I have students who are just natural-born teachers and have an innate knowledge of what to do in the classroom and how to ask children the right questions. They might not be the best spellers or the best at math, but their hearts go out to the children, and they really enjoy being with them. These are the CDA students I like working with the most because they’re so invested in what we’re doing in our school’s program. You need to have some inner drive besides a reasonable ability to do the coursework. So, I look for that special spark in my students.”
The students get a chance to show it when they do their CDA hours in Buckeye’s onsite lab school. And Bobi’s goal for the students at that point is for them to become more independent. “I tell my students I’m there to help but I want them to feel they can run the preschool by themselves and make decisions as the circumstances change. This is because you can never completely plan for the children’s day at school. You might have a fire drill, or a child has an accident and that changes everything you had thought you’d do. Or you might have a great lesson plan on a beautiful day, so you have the children spend the time outside instead. I want my CDA students to be able to make those decisions themselves and get to the point where they feel they don’t always need me.”
So, she gives the students lots of opportunities to try out new things. “I have students who email me about activities they’ve heard about and would like to try in the classroom,” Bobi explains. “If a student has a special interest in music or art, for example, I try to encourage them and provide them with the resources they need to share their passion. So, I often adapt the preschool schedule to include the activities they suggest. I want the students to feel they have talents they can enjoy with the young learners. And, even more important, I want students to realize that it’s a huge privilege to help the children and their family members.”
Students who grasp the importance of this can bring out children’s best, as Bobi has succeeded in doing with Elise. “She’s an adult now,” Bobi says, “and we swim and bike together. She works 12 hours a week and she’s very active in our church. She has a dog she takes care of. She goes to the library, and I’m thrilled at her reading level. She also speaks well, and sometimes when she answers the phone, I’m not even sure that it’s her. So, it’s been a blessing to be her mom. And parenting her has taught me something that guides me in my professional life. It’s also a lesson I impart to my CDA students. Children who have someone in their corner from an early age can do a lot more than you’d ever think.”
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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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