Lead UofM PI for State of Tennessee Department of Education Grant

Funds to support families to improve life-long outcomes »

The State of Tennessee recently funded, “Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior and Academics”. The Tennessee Multi-Tiered System of Support (TN-MTSS) Technical Assistance Center is designed to support Tennessee public school districts and families by providing effective training, professional development, and resources. One of the primary goals for the TN-MTSS Technical Assistance Center is to improve life-long outcomes for K-12 learners across the state of Tennessee. Vanderbilt University is the lead center while the University of Memphis and University of Tennessee Knoxville serves as the state’s regional lead centers.

William Hunter, Ed.D., co-principal investigator of the MTSS Center/Principal Investigator of the West Regional Center (FY2021-FY2026) is an associate professor of special education at the University of Memphis. Since 2016, Hunter as PI has worked with the West Tennessee Behavior Support Project’s co-PI, project director and the team of educational consultants through providing technical assistance in Positive Behavior Intervention Supports (PBIS)/Response to Intervention-Behavior (RtI-B) to K-12 school districts in the West Tennessee region. As PI, Hunter helped facilitate the establishment of a collaborative partnership with the Shelby County School district which serves over 110,000 students in Memphis, Tennessee. Hunter received his doctoral degree in special education from the University of Cincinnati and his background includes working as a special education teacher in urban schools located within the Greater Cincinnati area for 12 years and as a special education administrator for two years. He has worked mainly with students with mild to moderate exceptionalities and worked as a residential mental health intervention specialist for nine years at several youth residential facilities. Hunter has authored and co-authored over 35 publications and 100 international, national, regional, and local presentations that includes the topics of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, and Classroom Level Positive Behavior Intervention Supports. Through instructional coaching, Hunter has supported elementary, middle, and high school teachers in the Western Tennessee region with the implementation of Tier 1 (MTSS) interventions within the classroom.

For more information on this, contact Hunter at wchunter@memphis.edu.