Published by CounciLINK on July 23, 2020
Kids can pick up crucial life lessons from shooting hoops. Playing basketball teaches children about the value of teamwork and cooperation. They can learn the importance of patience and why it pays to keep your cool even when you’re upset. They can find out useful things while having fun, as Cedric Bell has come to see. He coached basketball to young children at the Boys and Girls Club in Las Vegas for years, and it also taught him something about himself. He’s a perfect fit for the early childhood profession, though he didn’t begin teaching until he was nearly 40 years old.
Before that, he’d been in a number of different fields while having five children of his own. “After high school,” he recalls, “I went to Job Corps to learn a trade before going into the armed services. Then I drove a school bus for a short time in Texas and spent about nine years driving for American Van Lines and Walmart Distribution Center. In 2009, my youngest son was on the way, so I decided it was time to stay home and watch my kids grow up. I joined the PTA and volunteered at the Boys and Girls Club as a basketball coach for 3- and 4-year-olds.”
Acelero Learning, a local Head Start center, was right behind the Boys and Girls Club, which led Cedric to have a life-changing encounter about two years ago. “I happened to be coaching the son of the center’s director, who saw how good I was with children. She said, ‘You’ve been here two or three years, and you’d fit right in over at Acelero. You just have to get your Child Development Associate® (CDA) credential. So, I signed up for the course at the at the University of Nevada and began working at Acelero as a floater. I just got done with the CDA this May—in the midst of the pandemic—and I’m now an assistant teacher.”
Cedric always had a way with children, but the coaching he received during his CDA training helped him up his game. “The CDA made me a better teacher,” he says. “It helped me understand why I was doing things a certain way instead of just winging it. I learned more about how to approach certain kids and how to bridge the language barrier with kids who don’t speak English. It’s made me want to go on in school and earn my BA so I can be a lead teacher.” But he already knows a lot about helping kids score in both school and life.
Some of the children he works with don’t know how to share, so he tells them why they shouldn’t hog the ball. “I sit down and talk with them. I take my time to explain to them why you can’t snatch a toy from another child, and they come to understand,” Cedric says. He knows that “a coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment,” as basketball legend John Wooden maintained as he led UCLA to set records that astounded the world. And this gentle but firm approach also works with the kids who have behavior problems. “I try to find out what’s bothering them and ask them how they’re feeling,” Cedric says. “And eventually I reach them all.”
The key, he explains, is to communicate with the children. “I know they’re young, but I treat them with respect. When I go into a class, I make it my business to spend five minutes with each child, and of all the things I do, I think that’s what draws the kids to me most.” And that makes him an all-star at Acelero. In the kids’ eyes, Dr. J. has nothing over on Mr. C., as the children like to call him. “They know,” he explains “that ‘Mr. C. is going to talk to me, Mr. C. is going to listen to me, and Mr. C. is going to play with me.”
Many of the children crave his attention because they don’t always get enough of it at home. “Some of the parents get off work,” he explains, “and they’re so tired they don’t want to do anything with their children. They just put them in front of the TV, so the only time the kids have a chance to get their energy out and have someone to talk to is when they come to the center. I help them learn, but I also make it fun for them so that they want to come to school.”
What he achieves with the kids shoots down any doubts the parents might have about leaving their children with a male teacher. “Sure, some parents are on the defensive, he admits, “and might hesitate when they meet me on the first day of school—especially since I’m the only male teacher at the center. But I change their minds in due course when they see the changes in their children. For example, one Ethiopian mom brought her son to school at the start of the year and told me he didn’t speak English. He was bottled up and scared of his new surroundings. But I used things he understood, like colors and numbers, to help him open up. I also teamed him with other children to improve his language skills, and it all worked. He went from being shy and not speaking a word to chattering up a storm. He’s a whole new child.”
Cedric enjoys seeing changes like that, he explains. “I love watching children progress from not being able to write their names to knowing the alphabet and counting. As you work with them throughout the year, you see that progress, and that makes me feel good”—just like he did when he coached little boys on the basketball court. “I worked with 3-year-olds who had never touched a ball. By the end of the season, they’re dribbling, they’re passing and they’re telling me thank you.” In both preschool and sports, “all kids need a little help, a little hope and someone to believe in them,” as NBA All-Star Magic Johnson once put it. Cedric is someone who gives them what they need. And that makes him a slam dunk for the early childhood field.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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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