Dear Colleagues,
Did you know that Michelle Obama once made a special National Child Health Day appearance on Doc McStuffins? The award-winning kids’ TV show served as a venue for the former first lady to pass on advice from her Let’s Move! campaign to put young children on the path to healthy lives. The former first lady was committed to helping parents make healthy choices at home, putting healthier food in our schools and encouraging children to exercise more.
The Council also supports these goals, so we give our educators the guidance they need to help children pick up healthy habits in the early years. Our CDA® textbook, Essentials for Working with Young Children, provides extensive information on how teachers can maintain a healthy environment in class and teach children how to ensure their own health as they grow up. “To promote a healthy lifestyle,” Essentials points out, “it is important to be proactive. This means that educators must work closely with families to prevent illness and health problems, instead of reacting to them once a child is sick.” And educators also can help children stay well by encouraging movement and serving nutritious food—all key parts of an educator’s role, as Essentials explains. “When you work daily to keep children safe, nourished and healthy, you enhance their learning and promote lifelong healthy habits.”
Educators, like doctors, have the “chance to build better human beings,” Meylin Mejia Cardenas says when we profile her this month. Meylin spans the fields of medicine and early learning since she was a doctor in Nicaragua before coming to this country, where she now serves as the early childhood program director at Montgomery College. “I have no regrets about making the change,” she explains, “especially since I spent several years combining medicine with early learning topics as a college professor. I would talk to my students a lot about how to model healthy practices in early childhood settings, explain the link between healthy meals and brain development, and discuss the impact of exercise and a good night’s sleep for learning. Helping children have healthier lives is an integral part of early care and education, as I pointed out to my college students.”
And Dr. Yolanda Garcia, an early learning expert, former college dean and longtime member of the Council’s board, had a major impact on children’s health during the two decades she spent as director of the Children’s Services Department for the Santa Clara County Office of Education. “I look on those years as my greatest contribution to the early learning field,” she says in this edition, “as I went from serving 600 to 3,000 Head Start children. We were able to run five national demonstration grant programs that included dental health, family support, transitions from preschool to kindergarten, immunizations, water quality and testing for toxic chemicals in playgrounds. Equipped with a $30 million budget, we were able to show what a high-quality early childhood program should look like and how it would function in public education.”
Hefty investments like this have led to healthy returns for Head Start, as Dr. Moore says in his blog this month. Head Start ensures children have access to health insurance, developmental screenings, well-child visits, medical and dental services, along with healthy meals, he relates. Health care professionals play a big role in keeping Head Start children well, but their success depends on support from Head Start staff. Like all teachers, they are role models, and the classroom is a perfect place to promote healthy behavior. Teachers who eat nutritious meals are more prepared to show children how to eat right. Teachers who are active tend to conduct more movement-based activities and are more equipped to pass on the value of exercise to young learners. So, he urges us to ensure our Head Start teachers have more chances to move and the means to buy healthy food. Kids are more likely to follow the path to healthy lives when teachers practice what they preach.
Happy National Child Health Day,
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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