JD Andrews

On December 21, 2016, JD, our friend and mentor, passed quietly in his home in California. JD's obituary in the Washington Post.

For nearly fifty years, JD Andrews was at the forefront of creating professional development opportunities for early childhood educators. He envisioned, developed, and implemented early childhood systems positively impacted hundreds of thousands of professionals.

His first foray into the professional development arena occurred with the launch of Head Start in 1965. Andrews assisted in overseeing and supporting the training programs for personnel working in the newly established community based programs.

In 1972 Andrews joined the staff of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and was instrumental in growing their annual conference to the largest educational meeting in the country. It was his vision that led to the creation and implementation of NAEYC's accreditation system for early childhood programs.

JD's leadership as President of the Council for Professional Recognition focused directly on early childhood teachers through the administration of the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. Nearly 300,000 educators, many of them Head Start teachers, had received their CDA credential by 2011 when he left the Council to start the JD Andrews Foundation.

For the final chapter of his life, through his Foundation, JD developed world-class training programs to help early childhood professionals work effectively with young children to prevent diabetes, obesity and related conditions.

JD’s life’s work has and continues to benefit millions of young children and early childhood professionals.