Candace needed support when she began teaching early childhood education in high school and helping students to earn a CDA®. “I was teaching physical education at Lakeview High School in St. Clair Shores, MI, and I just loved the school,” Candace recalls. So, she was taken aback in 2008 when her principal said the school was cutting out her position and wanted her to teach early childhood education, instead. “I couldn’t afford to lose my job,” Candace says, “since I was a single mom with two young girls, so I jumped at the chance to learn about the early education field. I went back to school to get my consumer science endorsement and found that I loved my child development classes.”
She also liked teaching high school students as she came to see how crucial it was to bring more young folks into the early learning profession. “At the time,” she admits, “I felt that I needed guidance in helping students to complete their CDA credential. And as I became more seasoned, I began to think of ways to support other high school teachers who faced the same challenge. Together with some colleagues, I started a small teacher organization to provide a network where teachers could help teachers. We worked to make that organization bigger, and now it is the Michigan Educational Careers Association (MECA), which provides educators with opportunities to grow in their careers.”
And Candace also grew in her career six years ago when the Michigan State Department of Education was looking for an education consultant. “I jumped again at the chance to do more to support teachers,” Candace says “since I have first-hand knowledge of the challenges they face. When I began teaching ECE, I didn’t know anything about the CDA or the early childhood sector. I wasn’t sure about how to help students set up their CDA portfolios and what licensing looks like in the early childhood field. As a new teacher, I also had to combat the stigma that teaching young children is less important than teaching K-12. So, now I’m helping other new teachers address these roadblocks as I help spread the word about the CDA.”
The high school CDA plays a big role in the Proud Michigan Educator LAUNCH program, which helps students get a start in teaching. The goal of LAUNCH is to meet the need for qualified teachers as Michigan strives to provide pre-K for all, as Candace explains. She has been involved in the program since 2019, when she assumed her current position. Now she works at the state level to build a system to guide high school teachers in helping students build careers in the early learning field.
Candace’s job involves everything from policy work to giving teachers personal support and more, as she explains. “One thing I do is ensure high school CDA programs comply with federal and state laws by offering chances for student leadership and providing work-based learning. I also head up a committee of subject matter experts who advise the state on policies to surmount any roadblocks that stop students from earning CDAs. And another big part of my job is answering teachers’ questions and providing them with opportunities to learn.”
One of the ways that LAUNCH does this is by partnering with different organizations, including the Michigan Association for the Education of Young Children (MIAEYC), Candace says. “Thanks to shared funding, we have been able to send our teachers to the MIAEYC state conference so they can learn more about the CDA. MIAEYC has also supported CDA coursework for teachers and paid for them to take classes at universities and colleges so the teachers would feel more prepared.” And that’s making an impact, Candace says. “In recent years, high school teachers are feeling more comfortable teaching CDA courses, and high school principals are becoming more aware of the need for teachers who actually know how to prepare students for the CDA.”
Candace also helps build the ranks of CDAs since she does a lot of professional development for teachers through the Michigan Educational Careers Association, as she explains. “I work with MECA to get more young men into the early childhood classroom, put together a monthly newsletter and serve as a subject matter expert who can answer teachers’ questions or send them to someone who can. And this year, I’m going to be the keynote speaker at MECA’s annual conference, where I will call attention to the importance of credentials for the early learning field.”
She sometimes has to work hard to get this message across to high school principals, who tend to come from outside the early education field. “Many of them don’t want to steer students into the profession because they see it as too low paid,” Candace says. “But I tell them to stop being negative about the field because many students want to be early childhood teachers and earning a credential will allow them to move up the career ladder in the field”—an argument that’s also making an impact.
“From 2020 to 2024, we expanded from 55 to 132 high school programs,” Candace says. “All these programs must guide students to earn either a CDA or Michigan Youth Development Associate credential, which qualifies students to work in after-school programs in the state. In 2020, two students earned preschool CDAs, and by 2024, this number had mounted to 78. So, principals who were slow to support credentials are beginning to embrace them, and that’s exciting to watch.”
It’s also exciting to watch high school teachers develop and help their CDA students succeed, as Candace points out. “We had a 23-year-old teacher named Tina who had come from the early childhood field and was new to the high school classroom so she was feeling a bit lost and worried she wouldn’t be able help her students earn their CDAs. So, she came to one of our teacher conferences five years ago. Since then, she’s come into her comfort zone,” as Candace is thrilled to see. “Tina has been bringing a lot of new skills to the classroom, and 100 percent of her high school students are now earning their CDAs.”
Boosting the ranks of high school CDAs helps bring equity to early learning, and that matters, as Candace explains. “All children, regardless of their background, deserve high-quality early learning, and the only way we can provide it is to have educators with high-quality credentials, like our high school CDAs. And the high schoolers also bring energy and fresh ideas to the early childhood education field.”
Granted, they may also use their CDA as a springboard to go in other directions. “Not all the high schoolers in the LAUNCH program remain in the early childhood profession,” Candace says. “Some will go on to college right after high school. Others will spend five years in early childhood settings while working on their degrees. But overall, we’re continuing to build the ranks of the early childhood field and we’re convincing more high school principals to support the CDA. There’s been a change of mindset among principals in our state,” Candace says. And the progress she’s made has given her a fresh perspective on her past.
“I still remember what it was like when the principal at Lakeview High told me that the only way he could keep me at the school was by having me teach early childhood education courses,” Candace says. “I thought of it as a forced transfer and felt awful at the time as that principal pushed me out of my comfort zone. But, looking back, I now see he was giving me career opportunities that I would enjoy.
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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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