McQueen’s chief of staff moves to Haslam’s office

A key player at the Tennessee Department of Education will soon oversee policy for Gov. Bill Haslam.

Jayme Place Simmons, chief of staff for Commissioner Candice McQueen, will become a special assistant to the governor for strategy and policy. She replaces Stephen Smith, a former deputy education commissioner who became Haslam’s senior adviser last summer.

Simmons, 32, has overseen several key initiatives under McQueen and helped to draft the state’s year-old literacy program known as Read to be Ready. When she starts her new post next week, she’ll be in familiar territory. She served as an education policy analyst for Haslam during his first term.  

Jayme Place Simmons

“Jayme has been instrumental in many of our education initiatives, from the Governor’s Academy for School Leadership to the Drive to 55, and she has experience working with various stakeholders on many complex issues,” Haslam said this week. “We are excited she is returning to our team to help guide our policy proposals aimed at building and sustaining economic growth and the state’s competitiveness for the next generation of Tennesseans.”

McQueen has not named her new chief of staff but, in an email dispatched Wednesday to school directors across the state, she announced several other leadership changes.

Theresa Nicholls will be the department’s new assistant commissioner for special populations and student support.

Nicholls has been executive director for special populations, working on issues around dyslexia, disability standards, and Response to Instruction and Intervention, or RTI, the state’s intervention program to support students with academic challenges. Before joining the department in 2013, she was a psychologist for Williamson County Schools. Nicholls succeeds Paula Brownyard, who was interim assistant commissioner after Joey Hassell returned to Lauderdale County Schools.

In addition, Allison Davey has been promoted to executive director of special populations and student support. Davey came to the department in 2003 after working as a special education teacher in Franklin Special School District and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Schools in North Carolina. In her most recent role, she focused on communications, contracts, grants and budget for the federal program for educating children with disabilities.