Early childhood teachers often struggle when working with young dual language learners. Some DLLs seem to ignore directions and live in a world of their own. Others appear sad, keep to themselves and refuse to talk. Then there are those who may act out in forceful ways like Carlos, a three-year-old boy who was born in Mexico and attends a public pre-K program. He is still learning his home language and has picked up a few words in English. He enjoys playing in the block area but recently began striking his peers with the blocks. His teacher uses a range of positive guidance techniques to address his behavior, but Carlos only gets more assertive. His teacher doesn’t know what to do to get through to the little boy.
She could find some answers by turning to USTRIVE, an online program that helps teachers work with bilingual learners in a fun, immersive way. “I developed USTRIVE to help teachers break the bilingual barrier,” says Larissa Sales-Sanchez. “In general, young dual language learners go to school,” she explains, “and teachers tell them what to do but the children don’t listen. The teachers think the children have behavioral problems, but the issue isn’t that they don’t want to follow instructions. The problem is that they don’t understand. And even if they do, they’re slow to respond because they’re so busy translating the words in their heads.”
But there are a lot of strategies teachers can use to communicate better with children, Larissa explains, whatever the language they speak at home. “Teachers should speak slower and employ visuals. They should also use sign language, not necessarily American Sign Language, but simple things, like pointing, that American teachers wouldn’t generally do. You need to understand the bilingual brain.”
Larissa does because she faced her own struggles with learning English when she came to the U.S. from Brazil at age 17. “It was hard for me to ask people to talk slowly and repeat things when I first came to the United States. This led me to come up with my own teaching strategy of speaking slowly, repeating myself and affirming what someone else says by saying it again so they knew you got the message.”
Besides, these personal insights into the issues, Larissa has a lot of background in teaching DLLs and she speaks three languages: English, Spanish and Portuguese. “I taught English as a second language to adults in Brazil, but after coming here I decided to switch to early childhood education and spent two years taking college courses in early childhood development and care. I came out of it understanding that the most productive time to teach is in the early years. That’s when people’s brains are most efficient. So, you see results much faster than you do when you teach adults.”
The sooner you reach children the better, as Larissa came to realize while she worked as a bilingual aide in the Framingham, MA public schools and as a program coordinator at NĂşcleo Educacionista, an organization that teaches students the Portuguese language and Brazilian culture. In this role, she provided translation, interpretation and information to bridge different cultures in her community. She also helped immigrant parents communicate better with schools, an experience that further impressed on her the problems their children faced.
As she counseled parents on how they could help their children learn English, she heard some distressing stories. “There was a lot of crying and frustration,” she recalls. “I had tons of messages on my phone from parents whose children were insecure and unhappy at school. I’m talking about a 13-year-old boy yelling at his mom and saying, ‘I don’t want to go to school because I don’t understand the language.'”
Larissa nipped these issues in the bud after starting her own home day care three years ago. “Little Bear Bilingual Day Care was super multicultural and almost polyglot,” she says. “We spoke Spanish, Portuguese, English and American Sign Language”—all languages that Larissa knew well. But she also realized you don’t have to speak that much of a language to connect with young learners. “Once I had some German students, so I learned a little German. Though I only spoke a few words, the children came to trust me so they would listen and learn.”
Larissa’s young learners also picked up language skills from each other. “The children in my day care were amazing,” she says. “The American kids would speak English to the Spanish kids and the Spanish kids would respond in their own language. My two-year-old students would switch languages constantly and teach each other. With the right encouragement, there are no barriers for little kids.”
Watching them inspired her to break a barrier of her own by getting a degree in this country. “My BA is from Brazil and I didn’t have the money to pay for a master’s degree, so I was thrilled when I heard about the Child Development Associate® (CDA) credential. I loved the books that taught me more about working with different cultures and I loved going through the process. I thought this is amazing: someone will come to my home day care, observe me and I’ll get a widely recognized credential. It was also convenient for me as a busy wife, mother and teacher. It was a huge accomplishment that I could fit in while I continued working at home.”
Larissa has been reaching other teachers in their homes since her family moved to Florida last year and she started USTRIVE. “We offer online courses that help providers worldwide to learn to use the immersion method with children,” she says. “I want teachers to know I’m here to help you understand how you can break language barriers with your Brazilian-, Spanish- and Arabic-speaking students. I have tools they can add to their method of teaching. And if teachers use them, I believe that children won’t be crying because they don’t want to go to school.”
All the strategies that she passes on are based on her first-hand experiences in the United States.”USTRIVE is a summary of my life,” she says. “I developed my own curriculum based on what worked for me with my students and my own struggles learning English as a second language. I had to work hard to achieve my goals and now that I have my own online platform, I’m using it to bridge the gaps that make it hard for teachers to work effectively with bilingual kids. I want to be a channel between American teachers and the immigrant community I want to inspire teachers to strive.”
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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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