t’s time to take a renewed stand for equity in education. Our country has changed in the few months since we first published our paper Standing Up for the Best in the American Dream. It was before COVID-19 had taken over 100,000 U.S. lives, many of them people of color. It was before George Floyd suffered a senseless demise, like too many before him: Breonna Taylor, Philando Castile, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and more. But the urgent message we sent is more timely than ever before: As educators, we all need to be a part of efforts to end the poverty cycle that traps families for generations, putting them at greater risk of disease, deprivation and early death.
Inequity and injustice are still on the rise as we confront a pressing question: Is the American dream a thing of the past? It may be, according to the “Gatsby Curve,” a term coined by Alan Krueger, a Princeton professor and former economic advisor to Barack Obama. Krueger wanted people to see how the growing gap in U.S. incomes raises the odds that children from vulnerable families won’t do any better than their parents did.
But early education can lift them up, as policy makers and thought leaders began to see during the civil rights movement of the sixties. Segregation was rife in 1962 when Chicago economist James Heckman led a team of researchers and teachers in conducting the seminal Perry Preschool Project. The goal of their five-year study was to determine whether high-quality early education can help vulnerable preschool children improve their chances to succeed in school and life.
The youngsters chosen for the project were all children of color with below-average IQs, and the researchers hoped to rewrite their life stories. At first, there was great excitement because the children’s IQ scores rose more than those of children in a control group. Though these gains faded by third grade, the character traits the Perry preschoolers picked up proved more important, as Heckman’s team revealed in a follow-up study last year. Character matters more than cognitive skills in driving life outcomes, Heckman maintained. Not only were the Perry preschoolers doing well in mid-life, their children were performing well, too. And these results spoke to the value that early education brings to both present and future generations.
The “key ingredient” of the project, Heckman pointed out, was the “enhanced parent-child interaction” that educators produced during their weekly home visits. This warm exchange provides tremendous value and builds families’ trust in teachers, as the Council has heard from those who earn its Home Visitor Child Development Associate® (CDA) credential.
The findings from the Perry Preschool Project also brought home the need to invest more in preschool. They encouraged the growth of Head Start and caught the eye of educational leaders and lawmakers by showing that early education saves public funds. The children involved in the project were less likely to use drugs and have brushes with the police, more likely to be healthy and hold jobs. They were also more likely to provide their children with stable homes that enhanced their development, too. In short, economists have calculated a striking return of nearly $13 for every dollar spent on giving children the early education they need.
So hard data show that investing in high-quality pre-K pays off. Now we must act on the research by reaching more of our youngest children and raising the chances that they shall overcome the odds stacked against them. The poverty cycle that still afflicts many U.S. homes is a social ill that should concern us all, like the viral plague that’s taken an especially grim toll on people of color. The injustices that still persist led to George Floyd’s death and fueled the recent wave of protests. As we strive to right social wrongs, we should remember the sixties and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s stirring call to join him in “standing up for the best in the American dream.” As educators, we can play a key role in keeping that dream alive for all our country’s children.
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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 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 Alexandria VA with her husband and dog.
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.
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