“I have never done anything in my life besides work in early childhood programs,” Jerry says. “I strongly believe it was my destiny to do what I do—and it wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t dropped out of college.” Since then, he’s gone on to become an early childhood educator and advocate who provides children and programs with the professional development, mentoring and training they need to help children also fulfill their destiny in life. In the course of his career, Jerry has come to regard the future as a canvas that he’s left his brush strokes on. “As an ECE professional, I’ve had the chance to stand before the canvas of the future and be one of the painters.”
But 31 years ago, he was a 19-year-old who didn’t know what to do with his life. “I had come home to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands after spending a year at Tallahassee Community College. At the time,” he recalls, “I didn’t think college was for me, and when I told this to my dad, he said, ‘No problem. You can either go back to college or you can get a job.’ So, I worked as a summer camp counsellor for a child center in St. Thomas. The job was just a paycheck for me, but at the end of the summer, the center director, Ms. Lauren Bonelli, came to me and told me she had an opening for an assistant teacher in her three-year-old classroom. She had seen how much I enjoyed my work and how well I engaged with the children.”
Soon, Jerry’s interest in ECE became much more than a means to earn a paycheck. It turned into a passion. “I committed myself to learning more about child development as I became a lead teacher and then the center’s director when Ms. Bonelli retired. Afterward, I operated two child care centers on my own before moving to Fort Lauderdale in 2006. I found a job as an assistant manager at La Petite Academy, where I received a rude awakening that I needed credentials to advance in my career. When I asked my regional manager where to begin, she said, ‘Start with your CDA.’ And then I began to realize that having an education doesn’t just matter for moving up the career ladder. It’s also important for serving young children and families.”
The CDA gave Jerry a taste for knowledge and made him want more. He went on to get his associate degree, bachelor’s degree and master’s degree, as he recalls. “The CDA made me understand what was expected of me as an ECE professional. Without it, I don’t think I would be as far along as I am in my career.” In the past decade, Jerry has served as director of child care services at the YMCA of Broward County in Hollywood, Florida, and a training and curriculum specialist for both the U.S. Coast Guard, in Washington DC, and the Department of the Navy, his current job. “I support the child and youth programs on two bases in the Virginia Beach area by promoting best practices in the classroom, helping teachers grow in their profession, providing meaningful training and conducting teacher observations.”
Jerry also provides the community with his expertise through his three-year-old company, Choices Early Learning Consulting. His most recent project is as a technical assistant with Smart Beginnings of the Virginia Peninsula. “In this role,” he says, “I provide high-touch support to both child care centers and family child care homes. I give teachers the guidance they need to meet children’s personal needs, develop quality improvement plans, provide training tailored to the individual programs and conduct classroom observations.”
His efforts are part of the broader mission that led him to found Choices Early Learning Consulting. His goals are to help families select high-quality care and provide child care programs with relevant training and chances for professional development. He also advocates for the advancement of the early childhood profession by ensuring that it’s staffed with qualified, credentialed teachers. “I want to be in a space where I have a hand in the future of the ECE profession,” Jerry explains, “and that’s the reason I also decided to serve as a Professional Development Specialist about six years ago. I want to pass the torch on to the next generation of educators when the day comes for me to retire.”
As a PD Specialist, Jerry enjoys the chance to help early childhood teachers take the first step into their profession. The CDA Verification Visit®, he explains, has also given him the opportunity to meet dedicated teachers like Melissa, the last educator he observed. “When I met her, I could see she was a ball of nerves,” he recalls, “so I reassured her that I was here to celebrate her and the wonderful things she was doing in the classroom. Then I told to go outside, take some deep breaths, drink some water and hit the reset button. When she came back, she turned to the class and said, ‘I got this.'”
It turned out that she was “an amazing teacher,” Jerry says, and working with her reminded him “how unnerving the verification visit can be for some people.” It also made him think about the “importance of the interaction between PD Specialists and the CDA candidates they serve. “When we do verification visits, we’re there to help good teachers become better, assure them they can be successful in the credentialing process and make them realize just how much our children need them.”
The verification visits also give Jerry the chance to “get on my soapbox and put across my central point,” as he explains. “I tell them my story and show how a paycheck turned into a passion that shaped my life and made me see the value of credentials for folks who work with young children. You need to have the right people in the classroom because we’re not babysitters by any measure. We are early childhood professionals who work to ensure our society’s whole survival by shaping the future of young children.” In the course of his career as an early childhood teacher, Jerry explains, he’s “created entrepreneurs and professors, high-ranking members of the armed forces, along with air traffic controllers. And some of the children’s he’s taught have never forgotten him, despite the passage of time.
“A couple of years ago,” he recalls, “when I was working as a trainer for the Coast Guard Child Development Center, a family registered their three-year-old child in the program. The dad was a highly decorated member of the Coast Guard, and one day I ran into him when he came to pick up his child. It turned out that he had been one of my very first students when I taught in St. Thomas, and he still remembered my face. As we stood together, he told everyone, ‘This is Mr. Graham, who was my teacher when I was three years old.’ Then he hugged me and said, ‘It’s because of you that I am where I am today.'” It was “so humbling,” as Jerry reveals, to realize the brush strokes he’d made on his former student’s life had never faded away.
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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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