Leadership is not about waiting for permission. Dr. Calvin E. Moore, Jr. sits down with Dr. Keon Berry and Tatjyana Elmore — two emerging leaders with non-traditional journeys into early childhood education — for an honest conversation about what it takes to lead before the field is ready to hand you the keys. From running from leadership to becoming president of a 45-year-old nonprofit, their stories are a generational handoff that shows what the next chapter of ECE leadership already looks like. Subscribe and never miss an episode.

What does it take to transform an organization? In this solo episode, Dr. Calvin E. Moore, Jr., walks through the leadership decisions that shaped the Council for Professional Recognition into the organization it is today — from building a culture of servant leadership to reimagining the CDA credentialing process. Honest, reflective, and grounded in decades of ECE leadership across the classroom, the center, the state, and the federal level.

What makes a teacher truly excellent?

Dr. Calvin E. Moore, Jr. sits down with Dr. Dina Walker-DeVose, professor at Georgia Southern University, for a conversation about cultural wisdom, teacher identity, and what it takes to build authentic connections with every child in the classroom.

Through the framework of exposure, experience, and empathy, Dr. Dina invites educators to do the reflective work that transforms competent teaching into brilliant teaching.

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The statistic is stubborn. Two to three percent of early childhood educators are men, and when you remove kindergarten and first-grade teachers, it is even more dire.

Dr. Calvin E. Moore, Jr. sits down with Dr. William White and Simeon Lehmann for a conversation about the protective factors that allow men to enter, persist, and belong in early childhood education. From mentorship and critical mass to the narratives that keep men from ever considering the field, this episode makes the case that recruiting men is only half the work — the field has to be built to keep them.

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The myths are costing the field more than we realize.

Dr. Calvin E. Moore, Jr. sits down with Erica Phillips, Executive Director of the National Association for Family Child Care, for a conversation about the misguided narratives that shape how society values and funds early childhood education. From the babysitting myth to the economics of family child care programs subsidizing quality out of their own pockets, Erica brings the data, the stories, and the case for treating child care less like a coffee shop and more like the public infrastructure it actually is.

America says it values early childhood education. The compensation data tells a different story.

Dr. Calvin E. Moore, Jr. sits down with Susan Gale Perry, CEO of Child Care Aware of America, for an honest conversation about what it truly costs educators to work inside a fractured system and what it will take to build something better. From the racial and gender dynamics underlying decades of devaluation to the difference between patching a broken system and building real infrastructure, Susan brings the policy expertise and the candor the field needs to hear.

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Educator wellness is everyone's responsibility. So why does it so rarely get done?

Dr. Calvin E. Moore, Jr., welcomes back Ant Toombs, founding member of the Life is Good Playmaker Project and one of the Council Table's most requested returning guests, for a deeper conversation about what it truly means to lead with joy, who is accountable for educator wellness, and what happens when nobody claims that responsibility.

From the difference between happiness and joy, to the generational divide in how we think about self-care, to the quiet courage it takes to prioritize yourself in a field that asks everything of you, this episode is a reminder that you cannot spread what you do not have.

The early childhood field has a language problem. And it is costing educators more than most people realize.

In Episode 2 of the Council Table Season 2, Dr. Calvin E. Moore Jr. sits down with Marica Cox Mitchell, Chief Program Officer at the Bainham Foundation and nationally recognized futurist in early childhood education, to unpack the identity crisis at the center of the profession. They get into why the field has struggled to define who its educators are, how funding streams and fragmented systems have shaped professional identity in ways that undermine educators, and what clarity could mean for compensation, policy, and the profession's future.

Marica draws on the nursing profession's CNA, LPN, RN structure to make the case for why early childhood education needs the same level of clarity about roles, preparation, and scope of practice. She and Dr. Moore also dig into credit for prior learning, the promise and limits of the CDA credential, and what it would look like to finally flip the script on how this field defines itself.

If you have ever introduced yourself as just a teacher, this episode is for you.