Jennifer’s second-grade teacher helped her find her vocation. “It was toward the end of the school year, and I didn’t want to leave my second-grade classroom,” Jennifer recalls. Soon she was doing everything she could to be held back. “I became a terror to teach, and most people would have thought I was a difficult child, but that teacher saw through my pretense. She pulled me aside and told me she knew what I was doing. ‘You want to stay in the classroom forever, don’t you?’ she said. ‘So, why don’t you become a teacher for young children?’”
Jennifer followed this advice after earning her bachelor’s degree in developmental psychology in 1993 and in the decades since then she’s filled a wide range of roles in the early learning field. She spent six years as an early childhood and kindergarten teacher, as well as an Early Head Start center director, a position in which she came to know how the CDA® leads to high-quality early learning and care. Jennifer has gone on to become a Professional Development Specialist who supports educators in earning their CDA and a research and program consultant for early childhood programs. Along the way, she began doing workshops on child development and literacy for Head Start teachers and directors.
By 2010, Jennifer was working on a master’s degree in early childhood education and felt ready to launch her own training business, Early Childhood Connections in Freeport, New York. “I have eight consultants who work for me,” Jennifer says, “and provide training in whichever particular area early learning programs want, including health and safety, leadership and setting up the classroom environment. I handle the areas of curriculum and child development in the training I conduct, and my work takes me beyond New York to Maryland, Pennsylvania and Georgia.”
The focus of much of Jennifer’s work is helping educators to earn a CDA because she knows the benefits it provides. “The CDA helps early childhood teachers gain skills, knowledge and an understanding of what it takes to maintain high standards in early childhood settings. It also makes the educators realize they are the members of a profession, and that changes their view of the work they do with children.”
Jennifer gets her points across by working with educators in a very interactive way in the workshops she holds. “I do small and whole group interactions,” she explains. “I encourage a lot of self-reflection. I have individual teams work on a project in a breakout room and then share their results with everyone in the workshop. For example, I might have the teams look for three multicultural children’s books and discuss what the books teach children about self-identity and social-emotional learning. Then the teams compose book reviews for everyone to read.”
Jennifer wants all the educators she trains to feel they have a role to play together in learning and advancing their professional skills. “For example, I encourage them to form relationships when they’re building their CDA portfolios,” she says. “I tell them it’s great if they want to do Zoom sessions together or meet at Panera to work on their portfolios together. And this collaboration does more than build friendships,” Jennifer explains. “It’s a way of understanding they’re in the same boat and forming a network that supports their professional journey.”
Jennifer’s own professional journey has brought her in contact with a number of educators who’ve impressed her with their skills and sense of commitment to children. “For example, I did a classroom observation of a CDA candidate named Darlene who shared my belief in the value of interaction,” Jennifer recalls. “She really focused on the children’s individual needs while keeping them on time and on task. If a child wanted attention, Darlene quickly made eye contact with them to show she cared about them. Darlene gave the children a sense of belonging and the way she interacted with the children filtered down to how they interacted with one another. Everyone in the classroom felt special.”
Jennifer also felt special when a young woman named Maryann smiled at her during one of her workshops and said she knew her. “I didn’t remember her at first,” Jennifer says, “and then I realized that she looked just like a mom who used to bring her young daughter to my kindergarten class. I remember when Maryann first came to class with a little lunch bag and a little hair bow and bangs, all ready to learn. She sat at the table with her hands crossed, and now she has finished earning a CDA and a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education. She’s 30 years old, about her mom’s age when we first met, and she’s a lead teacher in a New York early childhood center, not far from my company in Freeport.”
Maryann didn’t forget Jennifer despite the passage of years. Neither did Fatima, an educator who’d left a career in business so she could spend more time with her children. Some years ago, Fatima earned a CDA with Jennifer’s guidance and she has stayed in touch. “Fatima told me that she recently earned her master’s degree in early childhood education, and her instructors were surprised at how much she knew about the field since her bachelor’s was in business. It turned out that many of the things Fatima had learned while earning a CDA were applicable to her graduate courses,” Jennifer says. “She wanted me to know how much her professors had praised her, and it was rewarding for me to know that I had encouraged her to be a lifelong learner.”
Jennifer is also a lifelong learner and she’s now working on her PhD in psychology at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix. “My focus is on occupational wellness in the early childhood profession. I’m looking to explore how early childhood teachers describe their experience of character strengths at work. I want to explore the traits that lead people to remain in the early learning profession at a time when programs have a tough time retaining staff. We need teachers who are happy, productive and proud of what they do,” Jennifer says. “We need to give educators the tools to develop in their careers, and I think one way we can succeed is by helping more educators earn their CDA.”
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Vice President of Product
Mackenzie Pelland serves as Vice President of Product at the Council. In this role, she oversees the Council’s product strategy and portfolio, including credentialing programs, educational publications, professional development resources, and branded merchandise, ensuring offerings are sustainable and responsive to the evolving needs of early childhood educators and the broader early care and education field. Her work focuses on building scalable, user-centered products that strengthen quality and integrity across the Council’s credentialing, educational, and professional learning offerings.
Prior to this role, Mackenzie served as Director of ECE Observation Systems at the Council, where she oversaw the observation portion of the CDA® credentialing assessment process and led the ECE Observation Team. She also worked to support, refine, and strengthen the Professional Development Specialist community to better meet the needs of a diverse CDA® candidate population.
Before joining the Council, Mackenzie was Senior Director of Monitoring and Compliance Systems at Acelero Learning, where she led the development and execution of monitoring systems related to federal grant compliance, child care licensing, health and safety, incident management, and facilities compliance across Head Start programs nationwide. She also previously served as Program Accountability and Policy Implementation Manager at New York City’s Department of Education within the Division of Early Childhood Education.
Mackenzie is recognized as a credentialing specialist by the Institute for Credentialing Excellence. She holds a master’s degree in education policy from Teachers College, Columbia University, a Certificate in Education and Program Evaluation from Georgetown University, and a bachelor’s degree in politics and education from Occidental College.
Vice President of Strategic Alliances
Elisa Shepherd is the Vice President of Strategic Alliances at the Council, where she leads initiatives to advance the Council’s mission and strategic plan through designing, managing, and executing a comprehensive stakeholder relationship strategy.
With over 25 years of experience in early childhood education (ECE), Elisa has dedicated her career to developing impactful programs, professional development opportunities, and public policies that support working families, young children, and ECE staff. Before joining the Council, Elisa held numerous roles within the childcare industry. Most recently, she served as Associate Vice President at The Learning Experience and as Senior Manager at KinderCare Education, where she influenced government affairs and public policies across 40 states.
Elisa’s commitment to leadership is reflected in her external roles on the Early Care and Education Consortium Board of Directors, the Florida Chamber Foundation Board of Trustees, and as the DEI Caucus Leader for KinderCare Education. She has been recognized as an Emerging Leader in Early Childhood by Childcare Exchange’s Leadership Initiative.
Elisa earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a focus on child development from Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA.
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 (COO)
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 (CFO)
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 Wilmington, NC with her husband and two dogs.
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