On July 7th, President Kelly Smith wrote a letter to the Ways & Means Subcommittee on the Child Care Crisis and the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Click below to read the full letter.
The National Workforce Registry Alliance, Inc. welcomes Kimberlee Belcher-Badal, Ph.D., as the new executive director. Dr. Belcher-Badal takes the reins on November 11, 2019. She replaces Rose M. Kor, MPA, who has served as the Alliance executive director since January of 2014.
“The Alliance is excited to welcome Kimberlee as our new executive director,” said Kelly Smith, president of the board of directors. As a longtime member, Kimberlee has been vested in early childhood workforce development for the past 15 years. As an Executive Committee Member, Kimberlee demonstrated her commitment to the advancement of the organization through the facilitation of a strategic plan, nurturing community partnerships, and identifying opportunities for growth and advancement.
Kimberlee comes to the National Workforce Registry Alliance with a strong background in workforce development, career pathways, and state early childhood and after school registry development. Her doctoral studies focused extensively on mapping state registry developments across the country and possibilities for future partnerships. In the process of conducting early childhood workforce policy developments, she was able to look closely at each state’s system, the intersection of state registries in QRIS systems, and the potential to leverage data collected to influence policy, practice, and preparation.
Kimberlee has been working in and with state early childhood registries in many facets: as a teacher, school director, Early Childhood Apprenticeship Coordinator, TEACH Early Childhood Program Director, policy advocate, and through her dissertation for Indiana University. Kimberlee’s undergraduate degree is a BS in Early Childhood; her master’s degree is in Elementary Education. Her Ph.D. is in Curriculum & Instruction, with a minor in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. She has training and experience in Dynamic Governance with John Buck and Ted Rau, a certificate in Art Therapy, and has obtained a Montessori Credential.
Kimberlee is a military spouse, living in Northern Virginia, just south of Washington DC. She has two young children who attend a nature-based school in the region and, after living in 14 states, she is thrilled to live where there are four solid seasons, accessible museum experiences, and rich, diverse cultural opportunities. She is looking forward to working with state registries, Alliance Allies and Partners, and coordinating future opportunities for growth and development!
MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The National Workforce Registry Alliance today released the Executive Summary of its biennial national data set during its annual conference.
The featured analysis from the data set includes information on the infant/toddler workforce and changes in employment status, education, and roles between the 2017 and 2019 data sets.
“Wages are a perennial problem in the early childhood field. Based on this year’s dataset, center-based lead teachers with a bachelor’s degree had a median hourly wage of $14.73, which is about half that earned by kindergarten teachers ($28.10) according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Also, within the 2019 dataset, those serving the youngest children—infants and toddlers—earned less than their counterparts serving preschoolers. These inequities need to be addressed to ensure that all children, especially our youngest, thrive in childcare settings” said Wayne Mayfield, Ph.D., principal investigator from the Office of Social and Economic Data Analysis, Institute of Public Policy at the University of Missouri.
“The Alliance is proud of the data that is collected from the Partnership Eligibility Review (PER) approved registries for the national data set and that we are able to provide the quality longitudinal quality data that can inform on the infant/toddler workforce changes in employment status, education and roles,” according to Kelly Smith, president of the Board of Directors for the Alliance.
New members of the Board of Directors for the National Workforce Registry Alliance have been elected. New members begin their term on October 31, 2019, and will begin their orientation to the board in September.
There are two new Regional Representatives on the board. They are Jay Joshi in Region 2 and Christi Moore in Region 4!
Jay is with Public Consulting Group which operates the New Jersey registry and Christi is with Bright Start From the Beginning at the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning.
The new President-Elect is Diana Diaz of the Aspire Registry in New York. Diana was previously Region 2 representative and is the registry administrator of the New York Early Childhood Development Institute.
Our current Treasurer Jennifer O’Brien, director of Early Childhood Workforce Development at the Colorado Department of Education will return for a second term in office.
Also, returning for second terms as regional representatives are Region 6, Paige Cox with the Arkansas Department of Human Services; Region 8, Ellie Gardner with Align the operator of the Wyoming STARS registry; and Region 10, Pamela Deardorff with the Oregon Center for Career Development in Childhood Care and Education.
New and retiring board members will merge at the annual board meeting in Minneapolis on September 17 just before the annual conference.
The National Workforce Registry Alliance, Inc. is releasing a series of white papers on the work of the Alliance and its member registries.
The newest white paper is available below.
The National Workforce Registry Alliance, Inc. has released its annual report for the fiscal year 2018 which ended in September. You can read the report under the Resources menu item or click below.