Prevention of problems does more than intervention to help families thrive, as Maricela learned 12 years ago on her first job out of college. “I was a social worker for families who were receiving aid from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services,” she recalls. “I was supposed to do what it took to get people back to work, whether that meant encouraging them to return to school, get training or sharpen their job interview skills.” Her assistance helped many people find work, but they didn’t last on the job. “Within eight months they were back in my office,” she says, “and I saw that intervention wasn’t the best response to the challenges families faced.”
One of the greatest roadblocks to stable employment was the lack of child care in Lexington, Nebraska, the small city where Maricela went on to work as a home visitor for eight years. “There were only two child care programs in town, so I had trouble finding care for the families I served,” Maricela says. An added problem was the shortage of Spanish-speaking early childhood teachers in her city, where two-thirds of residents are Hispanic. A similar shortage exists throughout Nebraska, as Maricela understood, so she became interested in systems change that could broaden the ranks of Spanish-speaking educators.
Four years ago, she took on her current role as early learning connection bilingual specialist for the Nebraska Department of Education’s Office of Early Childhood. She supports career and professional development for early educators and is responsible for recruiting bilingual trainers for the department. “I also do an annual needs assessment in Spanish that we distribute to providers,” Maricela says. “I find out what competencies the providers would like and pass on their feedback to the Office of Early Childhood,” she explains. Each year that feedback becomes the basis for a professional development plan that Maricela helps coordinate and put in action.
“The early childhood providers I serve love their profession and want to improve their skills but lack the resources to do it, and that’s where I come in,” Maricela says. “As part of my work, I’m making sure that all the training and courses are in Spanish so the educators can earn their CDA® and do more to make a difference in the lives of Spanish-speaking children and their families.”
Maricela identifies with the struggles that the children and families face because her parents and five siblings came to Anaheim, California, from Mexico when she was five years old. “My father was a farm worker, and we lived in a neighborhood where there were a lot of gang members and drive-by shootings,” she recalls of those frightening early years. Maricela felt safer after her dad found a job at a beef processing plant in Nebraska, and she might have wound up working in the plant, too, if her mother had not been a firm believer in the value of education.
“Despite my mom’s support, I struggled in school,” Maricela says. “I had undiagnosed ADHD, and my teachers considered me to be a disciplinary problem. I remember sitting at the kitchen table and crying because I couldn’t perform as well as the other children in my school. No one considered me college material, but I was able to get my ADHD under control in high school and focus enough to become the first person in my family to go to college,” Maricela says.
Now, looking back, she realizes that the struggles she faced in school had an upside since they made her more empathetic to the roadblocks families and educators face. “In the course of my career, I’ve been in a position where I can show other people that they, too, have the power to succeed. As a home visitor, I saw that early childhood education is a game changer for Hispanic families,” she says, and this observation has been a source of inspiration. Maricela’s efforts to provide the families with Spanish-speaking educators has gone beyond her current work as a bilingual specialist for the state.
“A few years ago, my older sister, a realtor and special advocate for the courts, and I volunteered with Communities for Kids to provide free child care training at the Lexington YMCA,” Maricela recalls. “My mother’s reputation in the community helped us get the program off the ground since she was very service-oriented and known for helping other community members. People remembered my mom as we went around knocking on doors and telling people about the program,” Maricela says. “They decided to trust us and take advantage of the free opportunity we were offering them to learn new skills.”
Some of the women who came were providers who weren’t licensed and often didn’t understand how to navigate the licensing system. Others worked at the beef processing plant and were looking for a better career. Twenty-five women showed up for the training, which included 55 hours of classes on the licensing process and on how to provide high-quality early childhood education. “Out of those 25 women, 10 have continued their journey to become licensed providers and some have also earned their CDA,” Maricela says. These achievements have helped boost their programs’ standing in Nebraska’s quality rating and improvement system, while making a dent in Lexington’s child care shortage.
“That’s the type of community work I love,” Maricela says, and Lexington is just one of the communities she reaches across the state. Maricela also plays a key role in organizing the annual Growing Together Childcare Educators Conference in Grand Island, a very rural part of Nebraska. The event fosters collaboration and a stronger sense of community among educators who are dedicated to providing the best possible care for Nebraska’s children. And their ranks are growing, as Maricela has seen from the increasing success of the conference since its start. “Two years ago, we had only 38 attendees, and this year we had 150 attendees, including staff from both child care centers and family child care programs.”
The goal of the conference is to address challenges in Nebraska’s child care sector by discussing how to recruit more people into the profession, showing how to build a business plan for a child care program and passing on information about best practices in the field. “We also strive to build trust among Spanish-speaking providers, so they’ll seek the state’s assistance in addressing any issues they face,” Maricela says. “We do a needs assessment to put the program together and strategically offer programing that will count toward the CDA.”
The CDA plays a key role in Maricela’s work to improve early learning in Nebraska, and she’s convinced that “no provider should get a license without earning a CDA,” she says. “Educators are building a foundation for people’s lives, and the CDA gives educators the foundational knowledge to get child care right. Earning a CDA is the first step in showing early childhood teachers that they are professionals who make an impact on our society, communities and children,” Maricela points out.
“There are so many studies that show how quality early learning makes a lifelong difference in children’s lives,” Maricela explains. Children who have licensed and credentialed early childhood teachers tend to have better outcomes and fewer problems later on, as she first came to realize during her home visiting days. “That’s why opening access to the CDA is part of my ongoing work toward systems change for our Spanish-speaking early childhood teachers,” Maricela says. “I want to lift the educators up by giving them more resources, skills and support.” The educators, in turn, can lift families up and give children a good start, so they’re less likely to need intervention as adults, Maricela believes. “Helping more early educators to earn a CDA is a key piece of prevention.”
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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.
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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