Don’t Become a Gossip Girl at Work
We have all been victims or participants of gossip at work, and sadly, this is no different in an early childhood education setting. Maybe it’s something you overheard in the hallway about a co-worker’s romantic...
Usually we think of Teacher Appreciation Week as a time to honor K–12 teachers. This week is typically filled with handwritten and lovingly decorated notes of appreciation, flowers left on desks and long, strong hugs of recognition for the support each and every educator gives to our students.
That’s not happening this year. No one could have predicted how different our lives would be in the beginning of the year, but here we are. Instead, teachers are being recognized in a way that we have not seen in the past, right next to healthcare workers, and we at the Council for Professional Recognition applaud them.
While every year we honor each and every one of the educators who have taken the steps and committed to their students by earning the Child Development Associate® (CDA) Credential™, the COVID-19 pandemic has made us more aware than ever of how worthy of appreciation our early childhood educators are. And we want to highlight those teachers who have continued to work, shifting their approach in the blink of an eye.
We are also seeing a new level of gratitude for our educators as parents are asked to support their children’s learning from a distance. At a Montessori school in Maryland, teachers are engaging with essential workers’ students in the building and the rest of their students online. Parents Will and Emi are grateful for this. Will explains that, as a dad, he knows he can give his daughter his undivided attention, but he appreciates that his daughter’s teacher is able to engage each child in this new virtual setting and make them each feel her individual attention, a skill that can be learned from the process to earn the CDA. Will and Emi feel this is an eye-opening moment for parents like them, as they have a new appreciation for all the planning and work that goes into each and every school day. Their hope is that, in the not-too-distant future, their daughter will again be able to share in personal moments with her teachers and classmates.
Teachers can feel like family. That is how Zoe feels about her daughters’ schools in Virginia. She believes their early education experiences are truly like an extension of their home, a place where her children feel safe and loved and enjoy themselves while learning. It takes a very special kind of person to be a teacher, and Zoe is so grateful for the ones in her life.
Every day I wake up, I find myself thinking what would I do without Julia Downs, my seven-year old’s reading teacher? Since the pandemic started, Ms. Down’s has been sending him handwritten letters and videos of herself reading books. She also meets with him weekly online to make sure his reading skills continue to grow. I am also grateful for my mother-in-law, a retired public school teacher from New York, who reads with my son and goes through a phonics lessons with him every day online. Ms. Downs and my mother-in-law have been a blessing to my young son during this pandemic, and I am so appreciative for their devotion to his success.
I was moved by author Kelly Corrigan’s vision for a post-pandemic world. As she so eloquently shares, “We discovered that teaching is the most complex, high-impact profession known to man, and we started compensating our teachers fairly for their irreplaceable work.”
So, as we celebrate our amazing educators this week, let’s commit to one another that we celebrate them each and every day.
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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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