Jade Oliver was living in Michigan trying to choose a career. She thought about being an architect and an engineer and a nurse. She worked in the burn unit. She did hospice work. 

“I didn’t like the sad parts of hospital work,” she says. “I knew I needed to work with children. That’s where my heart was.”

One of Oliver’s role models is her first grade teacher, Ms. Johnson, whom Oliver is still in touch with. 

“She’s African American. And the school that I went to was very diverse. And she was very close to all the parents in the class. She made sure to be involved with the parents and with the kids. And there was also my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Robinson. Those are the two teachers who made a difference.”

Education continued to be a pillar for Oliver. 

In 2013, she moved to Boston to attend Fisher College where she earned an associate’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Teaching and then a bachelor’s degree in Human Services. In 2019, Oliver earned her master’s degree in Early Childhood Education and Teaching from the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development. 

Today, Oliver is the Center Director at Ceder Childcare, and she has extended Ms. Johhson’s tradition by being and remaining engaged with children and with their parents, even after they have left the child care programs where she has worked. 

Oliver is also a member of Strategies for Children’s Advocacy Network. 

“Honestly, advocacy is where I’m supposed to be,” she says. But she’s looking for ways to be an advocate and stay connected to families and children. One path, she says, is to earn her doctoral degree, something she’s thinking about for the future so she can help bring about change in early education. 

“I wish that we were taken more seriously,” Oliver says of herself and her colleagues. “We’re finally getting beyond being known as babysitters. A few years ago, you could tell, the families would treat the teachers like babysitters. I hated seeing that.” 

Early educators, Oliver adds, should have the respect of families and policymakers. Instead, early educators lack resources, decent pay, and the time off they need to rest and recharge. 

“We’re year-round. We don’t get the time off. And we literally have to have eyes in the back of our heads. Now I understand that saying, because it is true. Yeah. You are literally scanning at all times.”

“I don’t think a lot of people understand that. But some do. A lot of parents say, I don’t see how you guys do it. Nine toddlers or seven infants or 10 preschoolers. It is a challenge. It’s eight hours a day, every day.”

Oliver’s goal is to elevate the profession from within. She draws on her past experiences as a teacher to be a more effective administrator. Instead of telling teachers what they should be doing, Oliver focuses on giving them the tools they need to succeed. 

“You have to set teachers up for success. You don’t want them to burn out. And a lot of teachers burn out because they are doing so much for children.”

Among Oliver’s strategies is advising teachers to let children get their own water bottles, tissues, and coats, among other things. Among the biggest fans of this approach are the children themselves, even very young children. 

Oliver says there’s more to do to close the gap between teachers and administrators. So she’s going to explore this issue for her Advocacy Network project, which is called, “Bridging the Gap.” Oliver is looking at ways to improve the management of child care programs so that everyone is better off — children and teachers. 

What would such a future look like? 

“I think there would be more people coming into the field. If we have the support, the resources, and the pay, we’d have a lot more teachers. 

“During COVID, teachers left the field, or were let go or furloughed because we didn’t have the funds to keep them. Some teachers got to the point where they were like, You know what? I can’t do this anymore. People were scared. And even when things opened back up, more and more teachers left. They found they could work from home or open their own businesses.”

Oliver would like to see more teachers return to the field, and she would like to help them understand their potential. 

“I tell the teachers that there are so many people you can meet,” Oliver says, pointing to her experience in the Advocacy Network, and with being on LinkedIn, and participating in Strategies’ 9:30 Call. 

“Making connections is the only way that things are going to change. Like with my advocacy project, if I share something and someone else picks it up, then we can say, We need to talk about this. How can we advance this?”