Katie Cour brings to the Nashville Public Education Foundation over 20 years of experience in the education, political and nonprofit sectors. A lifelong Nashvillian, Katie is driven by the idea that Nashville should be a great city for every child and family, and that the entire community is responsible for ensuring that all kids have an engaging, rigorous and joyful school experience.
Previously, she was the executive director of Talent Strategy for MNPS, where she developed and implemented strategies for the recruitment, selection, evaluation and retention of great teachers and school leaders.
Prior to joining MNPS, Katie was a senior consultant with Education First, a national education policy consulting firm, and also served as a senior analyst and assistant director at the Office of Education Accountability for the Tennessee Comptroller. She has worked for a variety of education nonprofits, including Reading Is Fundamental, Inc., Close Up Foundation, Achieve, Inc., and the YMCA of Middle Tennessee. In 2016, Katie founded Cour Consulting, which provided strategic advice and support to education agencies, national education organizations and education nonprofits.
When not thinking about education, Katie loves to go hear live music with her husband Dave, talk about world religions with her daughter Romy, or learn the intricacies of hockey from her son Henry.
Originally hailing from Seattle, Washington, Colleen will always have a deep appreciation for overcast skies, the Seahawks, and a great cup of coffee. She attended the University of Southern California, earning her Bachelor of Arts degree in music. She found a passion in music education, which led her to move to Nashville after graduating for Teach For America. She taught sixth-grade math and social studies for two years before leaving the classroom to complete her Master of Leadership and Public Service degree at Lipscomb University. There she became involved in education policy and the nonprofit world, and began working on the programming team at the Nashville Public Education Foundation.
Colleen enjoys the thought-partnership that comes with a small team of passionate and creative people. She loves anything that pushes her to think strategically, and enjoys seeing how each aspect of something intertwines and plays a role in forming the big picture.
She and her boyfriend, Doug, have a fairly poorly behaved, but very sweet and adorable miniature pinscher mix named Ella. In her free time, Colleen enjoys buying plants, cooking, and balancing a healthy amount of hiking and yoga with her love of TV shows.
Jennifer Hill’s dream for Nashville’s students is that they realize their full potential and have the confidence and opportunity to reach it. She envisions Nashville as a community that comes together to support its students and empower them through supportive and inclusive systems. Her passion for this work, particularly as a lifelong Tennessean and a public school graduate and parent, is the force behind her professional and personal dedications. She believes that transformational change happens through building community and strong relationships with others, and that if we wish to grow students to be lifelong learners, we must remember that there is not a lifelong love of anything without joy.
Jennifer was born in Nashville and grew up in Knoxville, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. degree from the University of Tennessee and an M.Ed. in educational leadership from National Louis University in Chicago. She is a past president of the Junior League of Nashville and has served on the boards of McNeilly Center for Children, Nashville Children’s Theatre, CASA, Inc., and Persist Nashville. Her professional experience spans several sectors, including serving as director of Client Implementations at Asurion, director of Talent and Performance Management at KIPP Nashville, program director of the Ayers Institute for Teacher Learning and Innovation at Lipscomb University, and managing the United Way of Metropolitan Nashville’s education strategy and investment portfolio.
Jennifer finds her own joy by spending time with her two children, Lev and Eliana, and their two dogs, Maggie and Stanley. She is either outside hiking and forest bathing, or inside recharging with a cup of coffee, reading a good book or baking bread. She dreams of living her best introverted life in a cabin with a gorgeous mountain view and a pack of dogs.
Melinda Judd serves as the vice president of Development at the Nashville Public Education Foundation. With more than 20 years of nonprofit experience, she works to expand the Foundation’s efforts to increase private–public partnerships in support of public school excellence.
Prior to joining NPEF, she was the director of Corporate Engagement at Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, where she managed relationships and fundraising with existing and potential donors. She also served as the director of Member Relations and area advisory council liaison for the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.
Melinda lives in Hendersonville with her husband, Scott, a Metro Nashville firefighter, EMT and engineer, along with their two children, Hannah Grace and Zach.
As a public school parent herself, she is passionate about the goals and mission of NPEF. She is excited to use her years of nonprofit experience to create a giving community around the Foundation that will foster growth for Nashville public schools.
Operations and program management has been Terri’s landscape for nearly 30 years. Terri was drawn to the non-profit sector after twenty years at UPS. She wanted to move to a place where her hard work could have a larger impact. She sees her work at NPEF as a way for a non-educator (and failed Sunday school teacher) to help. As a Nashville native, Terri attended MNPS K-12. She is forever thankful for the guidance and attention of Mr. Tom Sloan (Wharton) and Ms. Patricia Brock (Overton).
She enjoys almost all of the varied roles she plays in the foundation. She is particularly happy when a task can be turned into a puzzle to be solved. She falls into the category of accidental techie and accidental accountant and is always on the lookout for the next new thing to learn.
Terri is the proud mother of a MNPS graduate. When not in the office, she is most likely in the land of the mouse otherwise known as Orlando visiting her daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter.
Tashaye Woods was born and raised in Indianapolis, Indiana. She graduated cum laude with her Bachelor of Arts degree from Fisk University and completed her Master of Public Administration degree from Tennessee State University.
Tashaye has spent most of her career in higher education at Fisk University where her primary role was to galvanize students through their experiences outside the classroom to be career-ready professionals of the 21st century. She joined the Nashville Public Education Foundation team to use her skills talents to broaden her impact on education. As a public servant, she was attracted to NPEF’s intentional policy and programming aimed at providing an equitable education for K-12 students. Tashaye has deep connections to public education through her personal experience as a public school graduate and being surrounded by family who are educators. Tashaye is a proud member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated. She is also the current president of the Skyline Raconteurs, a Toastmasters International Club.
Tashaye enjoys spending her time with her husband, an MNPS graduate, Jeremy Woods Sr. and their toddler son Jeremy Woods Jr. Tashaye loves cooking, traveling (especially to see family), learning about homeopathic healing, and finding innovative ways to teach her son new and exciting concepts and skills.
