Vilma Williams: Four Decades of Faith and Courage

“The Council has been like my family for nearly 40 years,” Vilma says. She was working for Bank Street College, the former home of the CDA®, when J.D. Andrews, the longtime head of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), became convinced that the CDA needed its own organization. NAEYC had taken over the program from Bank Street at a time of booming demand for skilled early childhood teachers as more women entered the workforce. So, in 1985, Andrews decided to establish a new nonprofit to administer the credential. “He hired me because I had a CDA,” Vilma says, and she was working in the renewals department when she met one of her longtime role models, the Council’s first CEO.

“When Dr. Carol Brunson Day walked into my office in 1985, I could see there was something special about her,” Vilma recalls. “She was beautiful, poised and, above all, humble. She was good at doing simple tasks, as well as talking to an official in the White House. She knew everything about how children develop,” Vilma says, “and she shared her knowledge since she wanted her staff to develop too.” And Vilma has. She’s now the Council’s senior manager of multilingual and special programs, a role in which she has helped shape the history of the Council.

Vilma’s own history in the profession goes back to her days as an exchange student from Peru. She was here to improve her English and needed to pay her way through college. So, she lived with a lovely couple in Washington, DC, and helped take care of their little girl. “The plan was for me to take her to Rosemount Center, a bilingual child care program, in the morning and pick her up when my classes were over,” Vilma says. But she found herself spending more time at Rosemount than she had ever expected.

“I saw a guitar in the room,” Vilma recalls, “so I started to play songs for the children.” And Vilma was good at it because she had sung, danced and played music on TV for years as a young girl in Peru. The talents that had made her a child star translated into success in the early childhood classroom, and the director of the program asked Vilma if she would like to volunteer. “After that,” Vilma says, “I found my lifelong profession.”

Volunteering at Rosemount sparked Vilma’s interest in the early childhood field, as she explains. “So, I earned my CDA and became a teacher. I also began studying early childhood education in college, where my first professor was Diane Dodge. She was the founder of Teaching Strategies, a renowned program for training early childhood professionals through hands-on experiences in the classroom. And as part of her program, Diane used film strips, so one day she came to film my class, where she loved what I did with the children.”

So did the folks at Rosemount, and during nine years at the center, Vilma rose through the ranks. “I became a coordinator, staff developer and director of the infant-toddler program,” she says. But she never earned much money as her responsibilities grew at both work and home. “I had become a mom, and I was getting worn out because administering a program took a lot out of me. So, I called up my former CDA Professional Development Specialist, Margarita Perez, who was working for the CDA credentialing program at Bank Street by then.”

Soon Vilma got a call from the folks at Bank Street, who hired her right away. She had only been there two weeks when NAEYC took over the CDA program and set up the Council to run it. What followed were years of growth and innovation in which Vilma played a key role. The Council had begun by offering a center-based credential in English but soon realized it needed to encompass more settings and serve educators who spoke other languages. “So, we broadened the CDA,” Vilma says, “by offering a bilingual specialization in Spanish and English, a home visitor specialization, and a family child care credential.”

Meanwhile, Vilma was also broadening her horizons as she began going to conferences worldwide to spread the word about the CDA. “I went to Puerto Rico to help Diane Dodge do training for the credential,” she says. “I went to my homeland of Peru to present the concept of the CDA. I talked about the CDA in Brazil, where people were starting to realize the value of quality learning for children from birth to five years of age.” And Vilma’s travels also took her to Germany and South Korea as the U.S. armed forces began to embrace the CDA for educators in its child care programs.

In addition, a number of international organizations also recognized the value of the CDA after 2011, when Dr. Valora Washington succeeded Dr. Day as Council CEO. And Vilma enjoyed being involved in these global ventures since she’s convinced that all children worldwide deserve high-quality early learning. She considers one of her greatest successes to be her work with Arabian Child in the United Arab Emirates, which led the UAE to require all educators in Abu Dubai to hold a CDA. “We also partnered with 123 EDU, an organization in Panama, to provide CDA training with the approval of the country’s department of education,” Vilma says. “And we worked with Fundación DEHVI, a nonprofit based in Cost Rica, to promote the CDA, leading a cohort of educators to begin CDA classes in 2017.”

These global efforts have required the Council to tailor its training for educators who speak different languages and come from diverse cultures. The Council’s keen sense of family has boosted its commitment to all educators because family means no one gets forgotten or left out, a belief Vilma supports as the Council’s manager of multilingual and special programs. It’s a role that suits her well since she believes firmly in inclusion. She also has language skills that she has drawn on to increase access to the CDA. “I’m bilingual in Spanish and English,” she says, “so I have been deeply involved in ensuring that the Council translates all our materials into Spanish.”

This is part of the Council’s enduring commitment to multilingual, multicultural education throughout the many changes that have occurred since 1985. And Vilma has been a witness to them all. “During my years at the Council,” Vilma says, “we have streamlined the assessment system for the CDA and introduced the CDA exam. We have put many parts of the CDA process online to make it simpler for educators to earn a CDA and we’re doing more to help them succeed in their careers. Our efforts to advocate for the early childhood profession have also grown,” Vilma adds, “and they’re making an impact under our current CEO, Dr. Calvin Moore.”

Granted, there have been challenges, too, as Vilma admits, because our nation doesn’t appear to value educators or pay them as much as they deserve. But Vilma has never questioned the importance of what she does. This sense of conviction has allowed her to be a compelling spokesperson for the Council at the many conferences where she presents. “I have faith in what I do,” she says, “because I believe I’m doing God’s work. God is with me whenever I go to a meeting or speak at a conference about the CDA.” And that makes the Council a perfect place for Vilma to pursue her mission. “No matter what role, you play at the Council,” she says, “you’re making a difference in the lives of children and teachers.”

Vilma is glad to carry on her work under the leadership of Dr. Moore, who she considers “a great advocate for multilingual, multicultural education.” Under his helm, there have been shifts, including changes in the credentialing process and the switch to remote work. And Vilma has adapted to these and other innovations despite her many years at the Council. Vilma’s open to change, as she explains, “because you can learn lessons from exposure to new perspectives.” Besides, “the Council involves its staff in decision-making,” she says, as it moves ahead to meet the needs of the early childhood sector.

That’s one of the pluses of working at the Council, as Vilma points out. So is the chance that she has to make an impact on the early childhood profession. And her sense of conviction shines through when she makes a presentation or does a training session for teachers. “My early experiences on TV helped me to be at ease with lights, microphones and crowds,” Vilma says, “so I can focus on what matters: interacting with teachers and empowering them to do their best for young children.”

And Vilma keeps doing her best for the Council since she shares its vision of a world in which all children have the skilled educators they need. She holds firm to this goal despite the roadblocks our field confronts in gaining the credit it deserves. Vilma’s sense of faith helps her face these challenges head on. She also draws inspiration from working at a place where staff members care about each other and generously share their skills. “I can be courageous and strong because I’m not alone,” Vilma says. She has support from her Council family as she continues to serve young children and educators worldwide.