Dear Colleagues,
Native Americans view children as sacred because they have a close connection to the creator. It’s a lovely belief to keep in mind as we mark Native American Heritage Month this November. And one of the best ways we can honor our wakanjeya, or “sacred little ones,” as the Lakota tribe refers to children, is to guarantee them quality early learning. And New Mexico recently took a step in that direction. After a political fight that goes back more than a decade, New Mexico voters approved a ballot measure that made the state the country’s first to guarantee a constitutional right to early childhood education.
The measure will boost state funding for public schools and help all of New Mexico’s children, including those from its sizable Native American population. But there’s a need for more work to ensure equity in early learning for Native children, including training more Native teachers. During the last school year, 10 percent of students in New Mexico public schools were Native compared to 3 percent of teachers, according to the state education department. And this imbalance goes way back. As a result, “many of our children will never see a Native teacher in their entire school career and that’s simply because the pipeline is not there to support Native Americans as they come out of high school,” said Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, who has sponsored bills to improve education for Native children.
One of the people who’s also advancing this goal is Candida Hunter, senior director of tribal affairs for First Things First, an Arizona government agency that supports programs statewide through grants to community groups that serve young children and their family members. Read her profile this month to learn how she helps ensure effective relations between her agency and the state’s tribes to foster the provision of early childhood care in culturally responsive ways. The partnerships she forms with tribes allow Native people to have the say they deserve in the formation of their future leaders.
“And a priority for the tribes is to train their own people to teach young children,” Hunter explains. “So, we fund programs that provide scholarships for early childhood teachers and support CDA® training in local high schools.” Many of these CDA students, as Hunter has seen, go on to get their BA, then come back to teach in their tribal communities.
We need more teachers like this, according to Native advocates for children. One of them is Wilhelmina Yazzie, who sued New Mexico in 2018 and won a judgment saying the state must improve its public schools for students who are Native American or English language learners, who come from low-income homes or are disabled. They’ll all benefit from more funding for public schools, Yazzie acknowledged after the passage of the recent ballot measure. “I got emotional,” she revealed, “because this is a big step for our children. And this is what we’ve been fighting for, for so long.”
The Council has also joined the fight to advocate for children, as our CEO, Dr. Calvin Moore, explains. This month you can read about his efforts to give young children the teachers they need by standing up for men in ECE and urging Congress to expand the reach of the CDA. “The Council is not new to the advocacy arena,” he tells us in his latest blog. “We’ve been battling for the ECE profession since our nonprofit began in 1985. What has changed is that we’re now using our own voice to tell our own story and advocate for the CDA as a way to relieve the current child care crisis and raise the status of our profession.” Having more qualified teachers, like those who’ve earned a CDA, will help ensure that all our country’s cherished little ones get their sacred right to a quality early education.
Happy Native American Heritage Month,
The Council for Professional Recognition
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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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