The Power of Child Care NonprofitsEveryone profits when our youngest children receive high-quality early learning. Research from University of Chicago professor James Heckman has shown up to a 13 percent return on investment in early childhood programs, and the benefits extend to almost all aspects of public life. Children who have skilled early childhood teachers have less need for special education, better health outcomes and fewer contacts with criminal justice as they grow up. They also have less need for social services, tend to be more productive employees and are more likely to be better parents so their children go on and contribute to society, too.
Despite the proven value of early learning, millions of children don’t have access to quality early childhood programs. The shortfall of public investment in young learners has led to a gap, where nonprofits like the Council for Professional Recognition have stepped in. Since 1985, we have provided a service to the early childhood sector by overseeing the Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential™ to provide children with more of the qualified early educators they need. We envision a society where all children learn and thrive in environments led by competent, valued educators, an ambitious goal that we can’t achieve alone. So, we have harnessed the power of partnerships with other nonprofits that share our commitment to move early learning ahead.
A few years ago, we partnered with the Children’s Equity Project at Arizona State University to make early childhood teachers more aware of structural inequities in the early care and education field. Together, we worked to ensure that every aspect of the credentialing process, from our textbooks to our assessment of aspiring CDAs, reflected the diversity of the early childhood sector and gave educators the tools to serve all young learners, whatever their family background.
Many young children come from Spanish-speaking households, so we have strived to provide more educators who speak their language and identify with their various cultures, the goal of our partnership with Cooperativa de Servicios Integrados a la Niñez (COSIANI) in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Together, we work to ensure that children and their families benefit from educators who have been through the CDA® credentialing process to verify their skills for teaching young Spanish speakers in Puerto Rico. Closer to the Council’s headquarters in Washington, DC, we have formed an agreement with the Latino Child Care Association of Maryland (LCAM) to empower Spanish-speaking educators by helping them earn a CDA.
Many Hispanic educators are family child care providers, and family child care, as a whole, is a part of our field that doesn’t receive as much recognition as it should. I’m a long-time supporter of family child care, so I was eager to lead the Council in forming a partnership with the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC). The aim of the partnership is not only to help the providers earn a CDA but also encourage them to maintain NAFCC accreditation, a sign of high-quality care in home-based settings.
The quality of care that young learners receive in their own homes also demands attention. Parents are their children’s first teachers, as the Council often points out. So, we partner with Parents as Teachers National Center (PATNC), a program that helps families support their children’s health, development and safety. The goal of the partnership is to equip more educators with the resources to earn a Home Visitor CDA® credential, which will support their work in guiding families. By giving educators this opportunity for growth, the Council and PATNC aim to raise the standards of early learning and improve outcomes for children across the nation.
Still, how can we be sure that educators have the skills to reach this goal? The Council has found a way to vet the preparation educators receive by partnering with the National Workforce Registry Alliance (NWRA), which documents all the training that’s going on in the states. Our agreement also gives rising and renewing CDAs a more convenient way to verify their training hours, learn about chances for career advancement and be part of NWRA’s mission to strengthen the whole early childhood workforce. The results of the agreement promise to be far reaching since nearly two million early learning professionals participate in registries that partner with the NWRA. Now, the Council’s ongoing goal is to increase the number of CDA holders who appear in the registry across the states. That would be a stride toward providing more qualified teachers to reduce ongoing child care shortfalls and show the power of child care nonprofits to address broad social problems.
In recent years, growing vacancies in child care programs have presented challenges that affect the entire nation. Children who lack quality child care may be less prepared to contribute to society as adults. Parents without reliable child care are more likely to reduce their working hours, miss time at work or leave the workforce altogether, all of which hurts companies and the economy nationwide. The impact of the child care crisis on working families, employers and taxpayers leads to an annual economic cost of $57 billion in lost productivity, revenue and earnings, according to a recent study from ReadyNation, a Washington, DC, nonprofit that brings the business community together to increase workforce productivity.
The Council also supports this goal by broadening the pipeline of skilled educators who can benefit communities and the economy as a whole. That’s been the Council’s mission since our start in 1985 to the present day. We continue to connect with organizations that share our goals, sense of vision and commitment to make a positive impact, like two of our most recent partners. We have begun working with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) to help colleges increase CDA completion and ensure educators receive credits for their CDA coursework. We’ve also joined Child Care Aware of America (CCAoA) in a campaign to raise the status of the early learning field by boosting the ranks of CDAs.
These organizations, like all the Council’s partners, share our conviction that the CDA will ease the child care shortage by giving educators more of the career paths and respect they need to enter and stay in the field. By relying on collaboration, not competition, we and our partners have been able to expand our reach, enhance our expertise and drive innovation to lift up the early learning workforce. Together, we increase our power to produce change, and the foundation of our joint work is a core conviction that I embrace: When our early learning professionals do well, children, families and communities do well—and everyone in society profits.
Revised editions of four of the CDA® Competency Standards books will be available in January 2027 in both English and Spanish. If you currently have a CDA® Competency Standards book for your setting, you may...
https://youtube.com/shorts/BN0JTkyBuyA?feature=share Expertise, Made Ready to Open Coming January 2027: Revised CDA® Competency Standards Books The revised CDA® Competency Standards books will feature updated guidance, streamlined information, and enhanced support for completing the CDA® process. The...
In August, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) proposed significant changes to Head Start governance and staffing requirements. For more than 60 years, Head Start has provided children and families with early learning, child...
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The earliest years of a child’s life establish the foundation for lifelong health, learning, and well-being. From pregnancy through age five, rapid brain development makes this a critical period for nurturing relationships, responsive caregiving, and...
The Council for Professional Recognition is proud to partner with the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL) on the inaugural Credit for Prior Learning–Early Childhood Education (CPL-ECE) Cohort, an initiative designed to strengthen pathways...
Did you know the Council for Professional Recognition is a great source for exploring early childhood education trends and finding critical information to support your work? During times of challenge, a key strategy for increasing...
“We can’t just wait for the future we want. We must seize the opportunity to build it,” Susan Gale Perry, Child Care Aware of America CEO said last month on the opening day of “Igniting...
Why should you renew your CDA? Learn what some of our early childhood professionals had to say. For example, Isabel Blair, a family child care provider in New Mexico, has renewed her CDA for 20...
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.
Chief Administrative Officer (CAO)
Janie Payne is the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) 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)
Janice brings more than 20 years of experience in accounting and strategic financial management, with an extensive background spanning global associations, nonprofits, and technology organizations. She most recently served as CFO/COO for a global association advancing women in commercial real estate. Prior to that, she was the CFO at Achieving the Dream, a national nonprofit dedicated to supporting community college success, and Director of Finance at the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and Controller for two technology companies.
A Maryland-licensed CPA, Janice is deeply engaged in the profession through her service on the AICPA Governing Council and leadership roles with the CFO Leadership Council. In 2025, she was recognized as an AICPA Global Woman to Watch. She holds a Master’s degree in International Affairs & Public Policy from UC San Diego and a B.A. in International Affairs & Economics from The George Washington University, bringing both financial expertise and a global policy perspective to her work.
Janice’s journey is uniquely shaped by global and mission-driven experiences. Before transitioning into accounting, she spent a decade managing refugee programs in the United States and abroad, including roles with the International Rescue Committee and the Maryland Office for Refugees & Asylees. She has also lived and worked internationally in both Japan and Uganda.
Outside of work, Janice is a dedicated endurance athlete who completed a full Ironman triathlon in 2024, bringing the same discipline and determination to her personal pursuits as she does to her professional impact.
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