Jarrell Harris knows the power of role models for kids—especially young boys. “A lot of the boys I teach are considered troubled students. Where they grow up, they get the idea that it isn’t cool to learn and have good manners. Some folks say these boys are bad, but they’re being misjudged. They just make bad decisions. So, it’s important to take the time to get to know their backgrounds and build relationships with them. You need to be someone they can look up to and inspire them to develop in ways they never dreamed of before.”
Jarrell knows these boys can do more than people expect of them—because he did. “I come from a very rough background,” he says. “My father left when I was three and I was raised by a single mom.” Yet now he has his own early childhood academy, Empowering Young Lives, located in Steger Illinois. And that’s something he never imagined he could do six years ago when he first began his career in the early childhood field. “Before that, I was working all over the place, everywhere from Cracker Barrel to Chipotle and Kmart,” he recalls. But he’d always loved kids, and he got a chance to work with them when a friend who worked in a day care arranged for him to interview there as an assistant teacher.
“The folks at the day care were really impressed by my interest in the early childhood field,” Jarrell says, “so I got the job. At the beginning, I had only intended to test the waters, but as I worked at the day care, I discovered my purpose in life: I was supposed to be teaching little people.”
Granted, not everyone saw this, and he faced some initial resistance from parents who weren’t used to having their kids taught by a man. “At first, the parents looked at me,” he says, “and I knew they were wondering what this tall man with a big beard was doing here. But my appearance couldn’t mask what I was feeling inside for the kids. And the proof of it was in how the children related to me. In time, the parents came to tell me that their kids talked about me all the time. And when they saw how their children were developing and growing, it opened their eyes to my talent for teaching kids.” Some of the children he worked with found it hard to self-regulate or suffered from developmental delays. But he didn’t give up on them because he thinks “you shouldn’t let a disability limit the ability of a child.”
The response he received from the kids also inspired him to take steps to start his education in the early childhood field. “In 2015, I earned my Child Development Associate® (CDA) credential,” he says. And having a CDA not only made him more competent; it also advanced his career. “When I began working at the day care, I was in a room where they had all the three- to five-year-old children grouped together. On my recommendation, they made a separate room for the five-year-old kids, where I could address their needs even better. And by 2017, I had become a lead teacher and earned my associate degree in education.”
The expertise and experience he gained also made him more marketable and empowered him to “leave the nest of that day care,” as he explains. “I was growing up and had financial obligations, so I decided to spread my wings and search for new opportunities in my field. I went to work for a home day care, where I wound up being the director. At the same time, I was working on my BA in special ed, which I’m now close to completing, and operating my own private gig as a tutor and mentor.”
Last year, Jarrell took his next steps as an educational entrepreneur with assistance from his church. “A local pastor agreed to rent me some space where I could start my own academy and put my ideas about early education into practice. I don’t put much stock in strict curriculums because not all children have the same needs. Some kids are visual learners while others are more auditory learners, so you have to know each child and allow them to follow their own path.”
While Jarrell doesn’t believe in rigid lesson plans, he does set goals for the children. “I want them to learn certain things by the end of the week, but I want them to have some independence and sense of initiative as they’re working toward these goals. Children learn by exploring, by having concrete experiences, and then having you explain to them why we should do things a certain way. This approach produces results, and I find it really rewarding to see the children transform before my eyes.”
The changes he’s seen in his students have inspired him to help young boys who face challenges in life. And recently he started an organization called Empowering Black Males. “Its mission,” as he explains, “is to bring four- to eleven-year-old boys together, mold their characters, guide them and help them discover the greatness they possess inside. We have meetings and hold fun activities like team-building games, charades, pizza parties and water balloon fights.” But Jarrell’s new group also has a serious purpose. He wants to show the boys they can become “gentlemen and entrepreneurs,” just like he did. “I know what these boys are up against because of where I came from. So, I tell them, ‘Brother, give yourself some credit.'”
Based on his own experiences in life, Jarrell knows the young boys can exceed what many people expect them to do. “I’m committed to being a role model for them,” he says. “I want them to know I’ll never stop rooting for them and that they have the power in them to rock the world. I’m convinced you shouldn’t put limits on children, even when they seem to have problems. Kids can achieve much more than you think.”
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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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