Celebrating Dr. Teri Talan's Lasting Impact on Early Childhood Education and Care at Leadership Connections 2026

McCormick Institute for Early Childhood

BY Marissa McCloy | April 23, 2026

For more than two decades, Dr. Teri Talan has been a driving force behind the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood. She has served as the Director of Research and Policy, the Interim Executive Director, and the Endowed Chair.


As the Institute’s Leadership Connections national conference marks its 25th anniversary this May, Talan is one of the few who have been there from the very beginning. She has attended every conference since the first in 2001, and for 24 of those 25 years, she has organized and facilitated the Public Policy Forum, the event that now bears her name.

Talan is a nationally recognized advocate for the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce. Some of her notable contributions to the field include work alongside other advocates and professionals to design and launch the credentialing system in Illinois (Gateways to Opportunity) and the ExceleRate Illinois program, the state’s Quality Recognition and Improvement System. At a national level, Teri helped to develop the Unifying Framework and launch the Commission for Professional Excellence in Early Childhood Education, both designed to establish recommendations on educator roles and responsibilities, aligned preparation and pathways, professional compensation, and a supportive infrastructure with shared accountability.


“I have been told that even as a young child, I would identify injustice and call it out,” she said. “This was no doubt influenced by having a lawyer and a social worker as parents. Their influence is evident by my career choices centered first on child advocacy law, then on early childhood education services for young children and their families, and finally on building program leadership and contributing to early childhood systems change.”


Since joining the McCormick Institute in 2002, Talan has co-authored the Program Administration Scale (PAS) and the Business Administration Scale for Family Child Care (BAS), two widely used tools that help ECEC programs strengthen their leadership and business practices. She has also co-authored Building on Whole Leadership, the foundation for national standards and competencies for early childhood program leaders.

Dr. Teri Talan

Dr. Teri Talan

In addition to her research and leadership at the McCormick Institute, Talan taught early childhood education courses as a faculty member in the National College of Education at National Louis University, helping to prepare and mentor future leaders in the field.


“I have tried to pay it forward and mentor other early childhood professionals to recognize their strengths and grow into their best selves,” she said.


To honor Talan’s immeasurable contributions to the ECEC workforce, the Leadership Connections Public Policy Forum has been renamed the Dr. Teri Talan Public Policy Forum. Talan will also receive the annual Visionary Leader Award at the 2026 conference.


Dr. Teri Talan Public Policy Forum 


Held each year during the Leadership Connections national conference, the Dr. Teri Talan Public Policy Forum brings together leaders in ECEC to engage with national experts on the most pressing policy issues shaping the profession.


This year’s forum, titled “Navigating the Rapids: Using Data, Policy Levers, and Collective Impact to Keep Your Program Afloat,” applies a policy lens to the 2026 Leadership Connections theme, “Onward!”


Panelists include Elliot Haspel, expert, commentator, and author; Anne Hedgepeth, Senior Vice President of Policy & Research at Child Care Aware of America; Yesenia Robles-Brown, Chief of Staff at the National Association for Family Child Care (NAFCC); and Dora Sanders, Senior Manager of Fellowships at the Stanford Center on Early Childhood. Dr. Ola J. Friday, the Executive Director of The Early Educator Investment Collaborative, will moderate the panel.


Visionary Leader Award


Each year, the Leadership Connections Visionary Leader Award recognizes a leader who sees beyond the present, imagines what is possible, and inspires others to work toward bold and transformative change. This year, that leader is Dr. Teri Talan.


Talan will receive the award in recognition of her decades-long commitment to strengthening the ECEC workforce. Michelle Kang, chief executive officer of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), will present the award in a recorded message.


Talan will also serve as the featured speaker at the Paula Jorde Bloom Leadership Colloquium, where she will share the behind-the-scenes story of a career spent advancing the ECEC field.


To learn more about the 2026 Dr. Teri Talan Public Policy Forum, sponsored by Kaplan Early Learning Company, the Visionary Leader Award, and the Paula Jorde Bloom Leadership Colloquium, please visit our Leadership Connections page.

Teri Talan at Leadership Connections 2002, the first year the annual Public Policy Forum was held.
Teri Talan moderates the Leadership Connections 2025 Public Policy Forum.

Teri Talan moderates the Leadership Connections 2025 Public Policy Forum.

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From Survival to Sustainability: Business and Professional Gains in Family Child Care following Intensive Leadership Training

By Robyn Kelton, Nudrat Hassan, & Xiaoli Wen • April 22, 2026
INTRODUCTION Family child care (FCC) programs, operated by licensed or listed early childhood education and care (ECEC) professionals within their homes, meet the diverse economic, cultural, and logistical needs of families and communities across the country. Family Child Care (FCC) offers flexible, culturally responsive care that supports parents’ ability to work. Yet, the number of FCC programs and FCC professionals has been declining for nearly two decades (Junus et al., 2026; National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, 2020). One possible reason is that many FCC professionals open their programs with limited business training, despite serving dual roles as educators and small business owners(Kelton & Tenis, 2024a). A growing body of research highlights ongoing gaps in FCC business knowledge and capacity (Bromer et al., 2021; Kelton & Tenis, 2024a; National Center on Early Childhood Quality Assurance, 2020; Vieira & Hill, 2019). FCC professionals also report low confidence in financial management, data use, and marketing (Kelton & Tenis, 2024b). Without intentional investment in the development of FCC professionals, communities lose critical FCC options, reducing access, affordability, and stability for families. TAKING THE LEAD To help meet the unique needs of FCC professionals, the McCormick Institute for Early Childhood, formerly the Center for Early Childhood Leadership, at National Louis University, launched Taking the Lead (TTL). TTL is a cohort-based professional learning academy designed specifically for FCC professionals. It combines business acumen, leadership development, and advocacy skills to support sustainable FCC programs and improve the quality of care and education for children. The overarching goals of TTL are to help professionals: 1) develop strategies for growing and sustaining a thriving business, 2) improve quality practices as both business owners and educators, 3) build professional networks with other FCC professionals, and 4) deepen their understanding of their role as leaders. Since its launch in 2015, TTL has graduated 11 cohorts and nearly 200 family child care professionals in Illinois. TTL Core Training Elements Over a nine-month training cycle, TTL offers an FCC-specific curriculum with applied learning activities that strengthen professionals’ leadership capacity and business competencies while fostering collegial support and networking. Instructors create a GroupMe text chat for each cohort so participants can connect, network, and seek support outside monthly sessions. Each participant uses data from the Business Administration Scale for Family Child Care (BAS; Talan & Bloom, 2018) and the Family Child Care Environment Rating Scale-Revised (FCCERS-R) assessments to develop a Quality Improvement Plan (QIP) and receives a $300 grant to support implementation. At the end of TTL, each participant delivers a 10- minute presentation on the design and impact of their QIP. A primary objective of the leadership academy is to stabilize and retain the FCC workforce by supporting professionals in demonstrating competencies aligned with the Illinois Gateways to Opportunity FCC Credential and Illinois Quality Recognition and Improvement System (QRIS) ExceleRate™ Illinois, while also fostering a sustained commitment to professional growth. Because FCC professionals serve in dual roles as educators and business owners and often work extended hours, their time is limited. TTL was intentionally developed to ensure that its 119 hours provide meaningful learning that builds knowledge and skills, supports professional recognition, and strengthens pathways to increased compensation. The program is aligned with state and national quality improvement and professional development systems. Table 1 below highlights key areas of program alignment. Table 1 TTL Alignment with State and National Systems
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