Brooke Shuster – Content Development Team Director

Brooke earned a Master’s degree in Education that focused on High Incidence Disabilities from Vanderbilt University  she is also a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst. Before joining the Tennessee Tiered Supports Center, she served on the Tennessee Behavior Supports Project as an Educational Consultant and project lead. Prior to her work supporting schools at Vanderbilt, she served as a general education teacher and special education teacher at schools in Tennessee and as a district-wide Behavior Analyst. Her areas of interest includes developing effective professional learning opportunities for educators, supporting school teams to use data-based decision making, and increasing awareness and implementation of secondary and tertiary interventions.

Jennifer Higgs – Content Development Team Consultant

Jennifer earned a Master’s degree in Administrative Leadership and Supervision in Education from the University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Special Education from Illinois State University. Jennifer began her career as an educator teaching K-12 students diagnosed with learning disabilities and emotional and behavioral disorders. Before joining the Vanderbilt team, Jennifer taught Instructional Methods for Special Education at Lipscomb University and supervised resident teachers at Lipscomb and Belmont University. She previously served as the Associate Director of Student Services for a large urban school district, managing equity, behavior, and student support programming. RTI aligns with her professional goal to provide equitable academic access to all students.

Melissa Hine – Content Development Team Consultant

Melissa received her Master’s degree in Professional Counseling from the University of Georgia and is a Nationally Certified Counselor. As a professional School Counselor, her areas of interest include a focus on prevention while supporting students with academic and non-academic needs. Her goal is to develop trainings and resources that help districts, schools, and educators strengthen their current practices to better meet the needs of all students.

Kyle Kurlick – Media Specialist

Kyle earned a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Union University. He serves as the media specialist for Tennessee TSC. In this role, he produces multimedia content including video, graphics, and interactive e-learning content as well as acting as web master and designer for the website. He is a visual communicator with a passion for storytelling and helping translate the data-driven aspects of Tennessee TSC into relatable narrative-based content for districts and schools across the state.