Anita Rumage teaches early childhood courses. She holds a Doctorate in Public Administration from the University of Illinois – Springfield; a master’s in Early Childhood Education from Northern Illinois University; and a bachelor’s in human relations from Rockford College. In addition, Dr. Rumage is a graduate of Highland Community College’s Leadership Institute and earned Northern Illinois Center for Nonprofit Excellence’s Nonprofit Leadership Certification. She holds Human Resources Six Sigma Green Belt and is a Society for Human Resource Management Senior Certified Professional (SHRM-SCP).

Dr. Rumage has served children and families throughout her career as the executive director of a nonprofit child care center, executive director of a program serving survivors of domestic violence and operations leader of a community mental health facility with the only children’s mental health psychiatry program in the community at the time.

Dr. Rumage’s primary research interest is workforce transition and development. Her current research focuses on the Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) workforce shortage. She is serving as the ExceleRate Pilot Project Manager at the Illinois Governor’s Office of Early Childhood Development (GOECD) implementing the ExceleRate Pilot Project funded through the federal Preschool Development Grant – Birth through 5 years old (PDG B-5). The ExceleRate Pilot Project has developed a successful compensation strategy to support salary levels high enough to reduce turnover, to incentivize credentialing by paying more as credentials increase and to support the full cost of additional teaching positions, beyond Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) licensing requirements for child care center, needed to meet Quality Rating and improvement Systems (QRIS) standards for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) activities.