“Advocating for early childhood learning doesn’t have to involve lobbying and things that seem really hard,” says Lisa Plotkin, an early childhood education advocate. “It could be talking to someone on the bus or in your family about the vital role that our educators play. It could be a phone bank or sending an email to your state reps”—all ways to help educators feel confident in the advocacy space. “I want policymakers to know that people in the early childhood field are too often under-appreciated and undervalued as they endure oft-cited low wages and low professional status in the general public’s eyes,” as she explains.
The goal of elevating early childhood educators has led Lisa to expand her role in the profession since entering the field in 2004. She has served as a classroom teacher, administrator, and early childhood professional development director. “As I’ve grown in the early childhood field, I’ve come to see that I can make more of a difference outside the classroom,” Lisa says. So, now she has her own business in Richmond facilitating professional development for early childhood educators. “I strive to create time and space for early childhood educators to engage in dialogue and reflection on their practice,” Lisa says.
For example, she recently did a workshop on building a culture of unity by reflecting together and making meaning. And educators need time to do that, as Lisa is convinced. “I believe, as John Dewey once wrote, that you don’t grow from an experience itself. You grow from reflecting on that experience.” And Lisa reflects on her own experience as she works to move the early childhood field ahead. She’s been shaped by Jewish cultural values—such as kindness, holiness of the individual and the importance of curiosity and wonder—that are relevant for the entire world.
And her introduction to advocacy came from her contact with several Jewish organizations, she says. “I have been inspired by the Sheva Center Leadership Institute Fellowship through the Jewish Community Center Association’s Early Childhood Department and Shma Koleinu (Hear Our Voices), a collaboration among several Jewish ECE organizations to lift up the voices of early childhood educators and promote equity for our field. She has also been active with the Paradigm Project, a grassroots national movement to multiply and nurture the seeds of excellence in Jewish ECE.
The experiences she had with these groups led her to reflect hard on what she could do when the early childhood field went into crisis during the COVID pandemic. So, she joined colleagues from the Virginia Association for the Education of Young Children on a visit to Capitol Hill. “We advocated for more funding for early childhood programs in meetings with Virginia Senator Tim Kaine and two members of his staff,” Lisa recalls. “My colleagues shared wonderful stories, but I didn’t say much since I’m a bit shy. Still, I did introduce myself as a professional development facilitator for early childhood educators, and afterward the legislative fellow asked me how the senator could help professionalize the early childhood field.”
Lisa didn’t have a firm answer at the time since she had never advocated on the state level. So, she reached out to other members of the Virginia contingent for their thoughts on how to advocate better for the early childhood field. “A group of them met with me on Zoom and we talked through the process,” Lisa recalls. “They helped me write an email to the members of Senator Kaine’s staff. Then we prepared for a Zoom meeting with the staffers, and we kept meeting until we had built a relationship with Kaine’s office. This gave me the impetus to form my own grassroots group, Virginia Early Childhood Advocates, which now has about 60 members.”
The goal of VECA is to help educators understand the advocacy process and ask our own questions first, Lisa explains. “For example, how do you talk to your senators and representatives? What does the discussion you have with them mean? Does it make an impact? And how do we support one another as advocates for the early childhood field?”
Lisa wanted to provide a “safe space for educators to ask these basic questions and not feel uneducated,” she says. “We wanted to build our own sense of confidence while coming together in a casual way.” And this approach appeals to educators, so Lisa is expanding VECA with support from her consulting partner, Laura McCarty, president of the Northern Virginia Association for the Education of Young Children. “We have a vision statement. We’re presenting workshops on VECA at different conferences. We have a website where we can collect people’s stories and share them with our state reps.” And that’s especially important, as Lisa explains. “Positive change comes from hearing people’s stories and taking them to heart.”
So, it’s an evolving grassroots effort to boost and strengthen our early childhood educators from the ground up. “We need to come together, so we can tell lawmakers across Virginia what they need to hear from us.” But that isn’t easy for educators to do, as Lisa admits. “Our educators are very busy and it’s hard for them to take the time to get out of the classroom. And they may not yet see themselves as advocates. But they are the best ones!”
Still, their dedication to their work can also make them hesitant to speak out, Lisa says. “Our educators are caring people who make sacrifices for their work. They get taken advantage of and I want them to know that’s not right. I also want them to realize they can take steps to make change. And it could be something as simple as locating your reps online, figuring out their contact information and then reaching out to them.”
VECA shows them how to do that in a casual, nonthreatening way, Lisa explains. “I think that makes VECA feel different. We don’t have a governing board or a strict agenda for our meetings. I’ll send a preview of a possible flow for a Zoom meeting, but if someone has a question, we might go in another direction. Then, we’ll take notes and send them to people who couldn’t attend the meeting,” she says. “That makes the experience flexible and fun for our members.” It also provides some simple advocacy tools for educators who want to spend their time with children instead of going to Congress and asking for the things they need.
That might not be their skill set, as Lisa admits. “But they do need a place where they can come together, share experiences and have a dialogue on ways to advance the early learning field. I have a list of sessions I’ve facilitated in the past, but when I conduct a session on VECA, it’s not really about me telling people what to do. It’s about promoting dialogue. We learn from reflecting on the experiences we have, as Dewey said.”
And Lisa had an experience she shared to show the small ways that educators can contribute to their profession. “I attended a public meeting hosted by my city councilor in Richmond and learned that they were proposing a casino. The casino was going to have a child care center and pay the center staff $17 dollars an hour, barely a living wage. So, I raised my hand to challenge this, though I tend to be shy, and was met with applause. Soon I heard from someone at the casino saying they would raise the pay to $18 an hour”—a small triumph but it still made Lisa feel energized. “If I can do this, other educators can, too,” she says. So, she hopes VECA can give educators the sense of confidence and the strength to speak up. They need to know that the stories they share with policymakers and the public have the power to spark change.
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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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