Are you interested in earning your Home Visitor CDA® Credential or learning more about home visiting? This webinar is for you! Join us on Friday, June 25 from 12-1 PM ET for The Impact of the Home Visitor CDA® Credential: Expert Perspectives from the Field.
This special event will include remarks from Dr. Calvin E. Moore, Jr., Council CEO, as well as a dynamic panel of home visitor experts from three leading organizations: Parents as Teachers, Children’s Equity Coalition (former HIPPY USA), and the Office of Head Start, Administration for Children and Families. Each panelist will discuss the impact of their programs in the professional development of home visitors, and their perspective on home visitation across the United States.
To receive an email once registration opens for this free event, please join our first-to-know list here!
Special guest speakers and panelists include:
Dr. Calvin E. Moore Jr., CEO, The Council for Professional Recognition (Introduction)
Dr. Calvin E. Moore, Jr., an accomplished leader in early childhood education, was appointed CEO of the Council for Professional Recognition in May 2020. He’s the Council’s first CEO to hold its early education credential, the Child Development Associate® (CDA), and a former member of the Council’s governing board.
Dr. Moore learned the value of early care and education when he participated in Head Start as a child. He also has vast professional Head Start experience, having served in large and small, urban and rural, center-based and family child care-based programs, as well as programs focused mainly on Hispanic families.
Throughout his career, Dr. Moore has held senior roles directing complex federal and state departments that improve outcomes for underserved children and families. Most recently, Dr. Moore was the regional program manager in Atlanta for the Office of Head Start within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. His responsibilities included providing oversight, monitoring, training and technical assistance to over 350 Head Start and Early Head Start grantees with a portfolio of over $1.6 billion. He’s the author of The Thinking Book Curriculum: For Early Childhood Professionals, Men Do Stay: Recruiting and Retaining Qualified Male Early Childhood Teachers and many other books. Dr. Moore has received a literary award from AIM and New Light Ministries for his book, Agape Declarations, the Maria Otto Award for Leadership from the National Family Child Care Association and the Billy McCain, Sr. Memorial Award from the Alabama Head Start Association.
Dr. Christa Haring Biel, Vice President of Research and Evaluation, Children’s Equity Coalition (Panelist)
Christa Haring Biel, PhD is the Vice President of Research and Evaluation with the Children’s Equity Coalition, a nationally focused non-profit serving families from under-resourced communities. In this capacity, Christa is primarily responsible for evaluating the efficacy, effectiveness and feasibility of early language and literacy interventions implemented to improve interactions between children and caregivers. She also oversees the identification and implementation of assessment tools to capture changes in attitudes, beliefs, and practices of parents, children, and childcare providers. In collaboration with other national home visiting and child welfare models, she disseminates findings at symposia, conferences, and publications. Prior to joining the Children’s Equity Coalition, she served as a Speech-Language Pathologist, a special educator, a university professor and as the National Director of Research and Education for the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY USA) home visiting model. She currently serves a consultant on projects with the University of Virginia (Virginia Department of Education) and University of Texas Health Science Center and writes curricula for several different early childhood and early elementary school projects. Christa holds a PhD in Special Education with emphases in learning disabilities and behavior disorders from The University of Texas.
Patricia (Patty) Marickovich, Senior Program Analyst / MIECHV Coordinator, Office of Head Start | Administration for Children and Families | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (Panelist)
Patty is the MIECHV Coordinator for the Office of Head Start (OHS). She first joined Head Start as a program director, after earning a Master’s of Science degree from Virginia Tech located in Blacksburg, Virginia. Patty’s early childhood career spans Head Start, Early Head Start and child care in various capacities. She has extensive experience providing Head Start T/TA services in Regions III and XI and was Head Start Director for an agency with a home-based Head Start option. As a way to support infant and toddler programs, Patty was part of the first cadre of Infant and Toddler Specialists in Virginia, providing on-site consultation, mentoring and support for child care providers in home-based/family child care and center-based settings, including Early Head Start. As a way to provide linkages to professional development opportunities, Patty was an adjunct faculty member at two community colleges, having taught courses and having written early childhood course curricula for Virginia Department of Social Services’ Division of Child Care. As MIECHV Coordinator for the Office of Head Start, Patty supports regions and states providing Early Head Start Home Visiting services to families.
Donna O’Brien, Vice President of Professional and Program Development, Parents as Teachers (Panelist)
In her over 25 years in the field of early childhood, parenting education and family support, Donna Hunt O’Brien has always had a close connection to Parents as Teachers (PAT). After receiving her degree in child and family development at the University of Missouri-Columbia, O’Brien worked at the St. Louis Community College Child Development Laboratory for eight years. There she had the opportunity to mentor college students, learn from master teachers, study and implement different approaches to early education, and became a certified Parents as Teachers parent educator. She continued her graduate study in child and adult education at Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville. Soon after, O’Brien became adjunct faculty teaching a number of early childhood courses, while coordinating a family child care program for the state of Missouri.
Since coming to the Parents as Teachers national office, O’Brien has served in many roles. As a national trainer O’Brien has instructed hundreds of early childhood professionals. As child care training coordinator, O’Brien supported the implementation of Parents as Teachers in child care settings. She has been the principal writer for major Parents as Teachers curricula and, as training director, developed training manuals and procedures for training support, as well as mentored a cadre of trainers and training teams nationally and internationally. Currently, O’Brien oversees the training of thousands of parent educators worldwide, oversees the development and updating of Parents as Teachers’ trainings and curricula, and works to sustain and grow Parents as Teachers through new partnerships and innovation. She has shepherded the design and implementation of many PAT initiatives such as a Trainer Professional Development System, a learning management system, and Virtual Parent Education Services.
Vilma M. Williams, Manager of Multilingual and Special Programs, The Council for Professional Recognition (Moderator)
Vilma Williams, who is trilingual in Spanish, English and Portuguese, was born in Lima, Peru and has been in the early childhood education field for over 35 years. Vilma oversees all special programs at the Council, ensuring that multilingual and special programs needs are a top priority in all the Council for Professional Recognition does. Vilma has presented at many events worldwide— in Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Brazil, Panama, Germany, Korea, Japan and the UAE— on a wide array of ECE topics, including curriculum, dual language learning and bilingual/multicultural issues, credentialing, adult/family education, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Vilma has received numerous awards for her continuous work and dedicated service to the field of early childhood education, particularly for her work with Latinx children, families and communities, migrant communities and indigenous nations in the United States, the military community and for her international work on behalf of the Council for Professional Recognition. In former years, Vilma studied ECE in Washington, DC at Howard University, Catholic University and the University of DC.
During this event, you will also hear from special guest speakers who have earned their Home Visitor CDA Credential™ or assisted others in earning the credential: Trella Coppola, Autumn Farmer and Gisela Hurtado.
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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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