VP, Middle Region

Bio coming soon!

VP, West Region

Judy Paine is thrilled to serve as the Vice President West of the Tennessee Association for the Gifted. Paine has spent her entire educational career working with gifted students in Memphis-Shelby County Schools. She prides herself on providing high quality learning opportunities for her students to not only challenge them but help them reach new learning heights. In addition to working with her own students, Paine serves as a CLUE Teacher Mentor with MSCS. As a Teacher Mentor, Paine assists in IEP compliance and curriculum development and guides other teachers through the processes to help them in creating high quality opportunities for all students within the district. Paine looks forward to working alongside the TAG Board of Directors to drive opportunities for gifted learners across the state.

VP, East Region

Bio Coming Soon!

Past President

LeAnn is honored to serve as a Teacher of the Gifted in Maury County Public Schools. For the past 12 years, she has worked with gifted and twice exceptional students in all grade levels. After graduating from East Tennessee State University with degrees in Special Education and History, she began her career as an elementary Resource Teacher in Johnson City Schools. LeAnn previously served on the Students with Disabilities and Gifted Students Sub-committee for funding review and TN Board of Education Gifted Focus Group. She earned an appointment to the national Discovery Education Network Leadership Council and is recognized as a LEGO Master Educator. LeAnn and her family live in Middle Tennessee but hold strong ties and consider “home” to be East Tennessee.

Co-President Elect

bio

Co-President Elect

Ashley Biggs is passionate about providing high quality academic content for all students and eliminating barriers to identifying gifted students from historically underrepresented groups in gifted education. In her free time, she enjoys writing an d creating educational materials to challenge and engage students. She enjoys coming up with new tasks and materials that will make her students smile, and creating rubrics to help students evaluate their own growth as creative and critical thinkers. These hobbies began while Ashley attended Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College (M. Ed., 2016). She completed her Master’s Capstone on gender equity in advanced STEM education. Ashley has hosted numerous trainings supporting fellow district and school staff members in establishing fair screening and assessment practices for identifying gifted children. She advocates to establish equitable, data-based strategies for finding and identifying historically underrepresented populations of gifted children (particularly students identifying as members of underrepresented minority groups, students with coexisting disabilities or impairments, and students from low-income backgrounds). Ashley is honored to be a gifted educator in Tennessee and a member of the TAG Board, with the support of a community of expert educators who share a passion for advocating to maximize services and secure appropriate funding for gifted programming across the state.

Treasurer

Dr. Heather Knox is the Lead Gifted Specialist for Murfreesboro City Schools. She has been in education for 10 years and has been teaching gifted students for over 7 years either in the role of Gifted

Specialist or as a Gifted Cluster Teacher. In her current position, Dr. Knox works in conjunction with Middle Tennessee State University where she serves as the lead educator in the MTSU-MCS Gifted Academy that provides teachers with the Tennessee Gifted Employment Standard. She also provides coaching and professional development to teachers on providing effective gifted instruction both in Murfreesboro City Schools and in other Middle Tennessee professional development opportunities . Dr. Knox’s work has been published in Tennessee Association of Middle School Journal and Gifted Child Today, where she currently serves as a peer editor. In 2018, Dr. Knox won the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Teaching and won the Murfreesboro Education Association New Teacher of the Year in 2016.

Outside of her professional career, Dr. Knox also serves on the board of Stones River Manor, a non-profit Senior Living Community, and as Treasurer of the Darren Welker Servant Heart Fun, a non-profit organization facilitating mission, benevolent, and service opportunities

Serving as co-secretary, Amanda McBryar is the newest board member for Tennessee Association for the Gifted. Amanda is a Nashville native, a wife of 9 years, and a mother of 2 girls. For the last 10 years, Amanda has served in the general education and special education settings in Tennessee public schools. Amanda taught 3rd grade for 7 years and has been in gifted education for going on 3 years. Amanda received her undergraduate degree in education from Middle Tennessee State University. She moved on to get her master's in educational leadership and administration from MTSU. In her experiences in the classroom, Amanda found a passion for fostering the hunger for deeper learning in gifted children. Amanda received her Gifted Endorsement from Lipscomb University. She now works in gifted education within the middle school grade bands.

Advocacy Chair

Sarah Simonovich has been an educator in public schools for 20 years. Her career began in rural Georgia as a high school English teacher. Sarah earned her credentials in Gifted education along with a master’s degree in Secondary Education in 2009 and has worked with Gifted students ever since. Sarah is a Williamson County Schools graduate herself, and she returned to WCS as a teacher in 2012; in 2021, she stepped into the role of Student Support Services Specialist and supports the areas of Gifted and Twice-Exceptional. Sarah is passionate about helping all students learn and about holding the professionalism of teachers in the highest regard. She is looking forward to joining the TAG board and advocating for Gifted education at the state level.

Parent Liason

Alli Finney is a former first grade teacher with a long-time passion for gifted education. When her son was born, she began the full-time job of finding creative outlets suitable for his busy mind. In 2012, Alli joined and later became President of Williamson County Gifted Support (WillCoGS) with a mission of supporting, educating, and empowering gifted students and their families. Working as TAG’s Parent Liaison has been a rewarding natural extension of that local work. Along with her husband and son, Alli enjoys traveling and learning about different places, people, and cultures.