A Job No One Sees: Recognizing Early Childhood Teachers“Child care is the economy’s invisible driver” the journal Wharton Knowledge pointed out some years ago. And this assertion from one of our nation’s top business schools is gaining more buy- in, as I saw last year when I served on a panel at the National Child Care Innovation Summit, sponsored by Executives Partnering to Invest in Children and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. I was there to join business leaders in exploring ways to support early childhood educators, and at one point, I asked the summit attendees how many of them had relied on an early educator for child care in the last five years. Every attendee’s hand went up because they had all depended on the early childhood workforce at some time in their personal or professional lives. Our profession makes an impact on everyone, as the business community nationwide is increasingly coming to see.
“Child care access is an economic development issue,” said Samantha Cole, a child care business liaison at the North Carolina Department of Commerce, which partnered with the advocacy group NC Child to produce a recent report on the impact of the child care shortage. Affordable, accessible child care could add up to 68,000 jobs in the state of North Carolina, increase its annual economic input by up to $13.3 billion and boost its GDP by up to $7.5 billion, the study found. “So, “this is not just an issue associated with improved outcomes for children and families. It is directly related to the health and wellness of our economy across North Carolina,” as Cole explained last year. And more business leaders have recently acknowledged that the broken child care market hurts their bottom line. Business leaders from Missouri to Maine agree on the need to support the child care workforce and advance its professional growth.
“By investing in early childhood education and ensuring that child care providers meet high standards, the state can cultivate a more skilled and educated future workforce,” according to Matt McCormick president and CEO of the Columbia, Missouri, Chamber of Commerce. “Investing in child care is not just an investment in the present but a commitment to the future prosperity of the state and its residents,” he said late last year. And now is the time to act, as the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce pointed out last March when its Eggs and Issues networking event put a focus on child care. “Maine’s child care industry is at a breaking point,” the chamber warned in a description of the event, “as providers struggle to retain staff without driving up costs for families, creating barriers to workforce growth”—and “businesses have a unique opportunity to lead the way in shaping solutions.”
It’s worth their while since “child care issues are a net drain of about five and a half billion dollars out of our state’s economy,” said Julian Barnes, director of federal government affairs at the Ohio Chamber of Conference when the First Five Years Fund hosted congressional staff this month for an ABCs of Federal Child Care and Early Learning briefing. “That’s a huge burden for not just our economy but for our businesses and employers. So, more and more business owners are becoming wise to the fact that child care is an issue for their ability to attract and retain talent. The more we can do to tackle child care,” Barnes concluded, “the better off the state’s going to be because the labor force participation will go up.”
Part of the solution is seeing educators as the skilled professionals they are, explained Tami Lunan, director of the Ohio-based CEO Project, when she testified at the state house last month in favor of child care measures in the budget process. And Lunan urged the house that new money for the child care sector should go directly to providers to honor the key role they play. “We want to see something transformational, and I think looking to our early childhood workforce is a big part of that.” The industry already has low wages and high turnover, and “continuing to underfund their staff maintains the narrative that the early childhood workforce is not as important as other professions,” Lunan said. “Because we don’t see early childhood businesses as viable, we don’t see their staff as professionals. Instead, too many people look on them more as babysitters”—a fallacy that the Council for Professional Recognition has always strived to combat.
A key part of the Council’s work since our start in 1985 has been putting a spotlight on the crucial role that our field fills for the economy, children and their families. That’s why we’re proud to administer the CDA®, a credential designed for the sole purpose of setting high standards for the early childhood profession. The CDA has gained recognition nationwide, and we continue to improve it as part of our contribution to the early learning field.
In recent years, Council staff and I have worked hard to expand access to the CDA so more educators can get credit for the great work they do. We’ve reimagined the CDA to put a customer focus on everything we do. We’ve ramped up our IT systems to make it simpler for educators to apply for the CDA and track their progress through each step of the credentialing process. We’ve begun allowing virtual observations of classroom performance to make the assessment part of the CDA process more convenient. We’ve issued CDA renewal amnesty offers that help educators keep their credentials up to date even if they earned them several years in the past. And we’re now preparing to offer a new Birth to Five CDA® Credential that will allow educators to broaden their career options by serving in a wider range of early childhood settings.
We’ve also stepped up our advocacy work on behalf of the early childhood field and have a robust policy agenda that consists of the following levers for change: increase access to the CDA and support policies that recognize the CDA in state regulations as the preferred entry-level credential for our field, increase access to credit-bearing CDA training by supporting policies that set up or expand workforce programs, and increase access to early learning career pathways for high school students by expanding CDA career and technical education programs. Finally, we want to ensure early educators get credit for their skills and expertise through policies that promote fair and livable compensation.
The Council is determined to open people’s eyes to the value of “a job that no one sees,” as a Los Angeles educator named Eva put it sadly. Caring for children is crucial but too often overlooked by lawmakers and the public. It’s high time to take this invisible workforce out of the shadows and shine a light on the essential work it does. Now is a great time as we mark Teacher Appreciation Week since our educators are teachers “not babysitters,” as Tami Lunan insisted in the Ohio state house. She’s one of many business leaders who know that child care is an engine of our economy and are now advocating on its behalf. We should join our voices with theirs and make it our business to speak out for the early childhood workforce. We need to see this part of our education system as essential to the public good. Having quality early learning and care lets families work and that builds a better future. So, let’s all raise our hands to support our early childhood teachers. What’s good for them is good for the country, too.
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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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