This year, Sesame Street introduced two new stars. Elijah and Wes are father-son muppets who appear in the “ABCs of Racial Literacy,” a series that defines racism for young viewers and discusses reasons why it’s wrong. In the first episode, father and son told Elmo, the fan-favorite muppet, why their brown skin is different from his red fur. “Melanin is something that we each have inside our bodies that makes the outside of our bodies the skin color that it is,” Elijah explained. “The more melanin you have, the darker your skin looks, and the color of our skin is an important part of who we are. But we should know it’s OK that we all look different in very many ways.”
These words reflect widespread belief that it’s high time to reckon with race. Though Sesame Street has always pressed for inclusion, it’s now urging children to stand up against racial bias. And the show is an ideal backdrop for my talk on how anti-racism work is changing early childhood education. Our profession has long thought about how to nix prejudice early on. Still, the murder of George Floyd and the social movement it inspired have sharpened our focus on issues of race, ethnicity, equality and equity. Like folks in many other fields, we, as early childhood educators, are responding to the moment.
Education leaders have begun to think about comprehensive ways to teach through an anti-racism lens. Colleges are holding online events for educators on how to reimagine teaching with racial justice in mind, and school districts are expanding their curricula on race. They’re all approaches based on the belief that the early childhood setting is a microcosm of society where we can lay the foundation for a more inclusive future.
Calls to fight bias are ringing out on both the local level and in the larger community beyond it. The national mood affects all children since even those with safe, loving homes sense the current tensions around race. “Our children, though they are young, are aware of what’s going on,” says Chanita Coulter, a preschool teacher in Charleston, South Carolina. “I remember that even my younger students, at four or five years of age, knew who Trayvon Martin was and what happened to him.” So, Coulter believes in having open discussions with young students and not shying away from current events.
Last month, she took steps to encourage these discussions by co-founding Reflective Pages, a nonprofit that aims to help educators build multicultural curricula and get children to voice their emotions. “I think it is important that students of color actively participate in conversations that affect their families and communities,” Coulter says. “Students are well aware of the social issues and sometimes have a hard time expressing their feelings and opinions.”
Even infants who can’t yet speak perceive racial differences, and the Corlears School for young children in New York recognized this by recently hosting parents at an event on raising babies to value anti-racism. It featured a discussion of how educators are using Ibram X. Kendi’s board book Antiracist Baby and passed on Corlears’ top five tactics to make inclusion a family value. “As we all strive toward a more inclusive society, now is the time to examine the causes of systemic racism,” said Head of School David Egolf, “and how we as parents, guardians and educators can raise our children to be agents of change for anti-racism.”
Children aren’t born with bias hardwired into their brains. Instead, they’re like small sponges soaking up information and grappling with what they see. So early childhood teachers need to give them a safe place to explore and learn without the prejudices that often poison the larger world around them.
One of the ways the world reveals itself to young learners is through TV, where they’ve likely seen two outlooks on race in recent times. One showed the mass protests that resulted from the murder of an unarmed Black man. The other featured Elijah in his Sesame Street debut and broadcast the message we want our children to absorb: “Things on the outside—like our skin color, our hair texture, our noses, our mouths and eyes—make us who we are,” Elijah pointed out. “Many people call this race. But even though we look different, we’re all part of the human race.”
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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.
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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.
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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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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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