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OUR SAFETY EXPERTS
The training content we produce for SafetyInSchools.com is focused on school board members and administration, as well as five key employment groups in our school systems: instructional staff, custodial staff, school nutrition staff, maintenance staff and transportation staff.
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Because workplace settings and potential hazards are unique to each type of worker, we understand the importance of delivering content specialized for each group, and that has made all the difference in reaching them.
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Our training is unique because we use dramatic, real-world scenarios to impact behavior from within, not just an instructor sharing information that only affects knowledge.
Knowledge that changes behavior produces
action and results. And that is our goal.
DR. NICOLE A. COBB
Dr. Nicole Cobb is the Associate Chair and a faculty member in the Department of Human Development and Counseling at Vanderbilt University. Prior to coming to Vanderbilt, she served as Executive Director of School Counseling for the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. She has worked in education for 24 years as a teacher, school counselor and administrator at the district and state level. She holds a doctoral degree in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Tennessee. Nicole has done a great deal of policy and research work in the areas of school climate and crisis response.
Nicole is the recipient of the Tennessee School Counselors Association’s Supervisor of the Year award, Tennessee’s Association of Counselor Educator’s Advocate of the Year Award and Nashville’s Community Alert Administrator of the Year award.
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ANNITA KERR-D'AMICO
EdD, CWC
Dr. Annita Kerr-D’Amico has a doctorate in educational psychology. She is the Executive Director for The Joseph School, a primary school in Cabaret Haiti. She also works as a wellness coach, adjunct professor, conference speaker, and consultant to PHAT STAR Learning LLC.
Her most recent publication is The Culturally Wired Brain: Why Cultural Bridging is Critical for Learning and Understanding.
BRINK FIDLER
Brink is the founder and president of Defend Systems, a leading consulting firm in active shooter response and bleeding control. Having spent nearly two decades in law enforcement, he respectably served with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department as well as the 20th Judicial District Drug Task Force in Nashville. He also served as an adjunct firearms and tactics instructor. He has planned and conducted hundreds of high risk, tactical, and covert operations. During his extensive career, Fidler directed and supervised the most complex criminal investigations.
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These years of experience provided Fidler with a heightened understanding of every conceivable way to penetrate any residence or facility, and in the fastest, most proficient way possible. This knowledge, his commitment to security, and his dedication to keeping people and property safe is why he created Defend Systems.
JACKIE KLAVER, PH.D.
Dr. Jackie Klaver is a pediatric neuropsychologist and clinical child psychologist who is licensed in the state of Tennessee. She is the founder of Nashville Neuropsychology & Family Services, PLLC.
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She also has extensive experience assessing and treating school-age children and adolescents with attention and learning concerns (e.g., Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Learning Disabilities, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Intellectual Disability).
Her publication history includes 8 peer-reviewed journal articles and 22 poster presentations. She recently won a Merit Award at the student poster session at the American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology (AACN) conference in 2015, and her dissertation was funded by grants from The Autism Program (TAP) of Illinois and the Sigma Xi Rose and Essie Padgett Dissertation Award.
DR. RENE ROCHESTER, Ed.
Dr. René Rochester lives in Franklin, Tennessee, and is the CEO of PhatStar Learning (Preventive Holistic Adolescent Training: Serving Teens at Risk), a program that helps communities address the needs of at-risk teens by providing intervention strategies and resources.
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She teaches at a local elementary school and is an adjunct professor at Fuller Seminary along with other colleges and universities. Rochester has also written several books and is the founder of the Kaleo program at KAA (Kids Across America).
SHANNA KRAAI, LMSW
Shanna Kraai is a licensed master’s level clinical social worker who provides individual, family, and group therapy to children, adolescents, and young adults utilizing a compassionate, strengths-based, and cognitive-behavioral therapy approach.
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Shanna has 12 years of experience working in school settings (preschool to high school) and has provided school consultation services and professional development talks around bullying, trauma, social emotional learning, special education/student support programming, and social emotional development.
Shanna moved to Nashville in 2017 and has since worked with private schools and in private practice.