Brenda Eagan-Johnson, Ed.D., CBIST

Brenda Eagan

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 724-944-6542

Brenda Eagan-Johnson Ed.D., CBIST has over two decades of experience in the field of pediatric brain injury, education, and neuro-developmental issues in children. Dr. Eagan-Johnson is the statewide Program Coordinator for Pennsylvania's Child and Adolescent Brain Injury School Re-Entry Consulting Program called BrainSTEPS. In 2016, BrainSTEPS was also adopted by the Colorado Department of Education. Dr. Eagan-Johnson has focused on program development, implementation, consultation, and training for the approximately 300 educational consultants on 30 BrainSTEPS educational teams across the state. BrainSTEPS is currently being studied under a $2.2 million-dollar grant from the Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Eagan-Johnson received her master’s degree in the educational aspects of pediatric traumatic brain injury from George Washington University, where she now serves as an adjunct instructor in the graduate school. Dr. Eagan-Johnson holds a Doctor of Education degree in Mind, Brain, and Teaching (educational neuroscience) from Johns Hopkins University. She holds three teaching certifications and serves on three national advisory boards. Additionally, she serves on the Board of Governors for the Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists and has held a Certified Brain Injury Specialist (CBIS) certification since 2008. Dr. Eagan-Johnson is published in pediatric brain injury, regularly presents at the national and international levels, and has received multiple state and national awards for her work. Dr. Eagan-Johnson is also a leading expert on student concussion management. She served as an expert external reviewer for the CDC Report to Congress on the Management of TBI in Children. She was also the co-lead for the 1st National Concussion Return to Learn Consensus, endorsed by 12 national organizations. The Return to Learn consensus was conducted through her work as part of the National Collaborative on Children’s Brain Injury (NCCBI). Spearheading development and creation of her state’s Return to Learn Concussion Management Team Model, now endorsed by two State Departments of Education, Dr. Eagan-Johnson has trained over 2,900+ school-based teams. Her brother sustained a severe TBI when they were teenagers, which is where her passion in the field began.

Janet Tyler, PHD, CBIST

Janet Taylor

Email: [email protected]
Phone: 303-866-2879

Janet Tyler, Ph.D., CBIST is the Senior Brain Injury Consultant, Health and Wellness Unit, Colorado Department of Education where she provides support to Colorado school districts to facilitate the educational needs of students with brain injury. Dr. Tyler coordinates Colorado’s Child and Adolescent Brain Injury School Re-Entry Consulting Program (BrainSTEPS CO) providing training to school personnel to form BrainSTEPS CO teams to serve their districts or Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). Prior to moving to Colorado in 2015, Dr. Tyler served as director of an innovative statewide program in Kansas that provided training and consultation to educators serving students with brain injuries. Serving in that position for twenty-three years, she trained over a thousand educators, related service personnel, and family members; coordinated hospital-to-school re-entry for hundreds of students with brain injury; and guided school personnel in developing educational programs for those students. Dr. Tyler also developed a brain injury curriculum and taught a graduate level course on traumatic brain injury for fourteen semesters at the University of Kansas. Dr. Tyler has published extensively on educational issues related to brain injury, including articles in peer-reviewed journals, books, book chapters, manuals, and tip cards. She has served as a board member for the American Academy for the Certification of Brain Injury Specialists and the Kansas Traumatic Brain Injury Systems Development Project. She is Past-President of the Brain Injury Association of Kansas and Greater Kansas City. Currently Dr. Tyler serves as an expert external reviewer for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Report to Congress on Management of Traumatic Brain Injury in children and has co-authored a CDC document on management of concussions in school and served on the CDC Special Emphasis Panel on Concussions, National Institute of Health Peer Review Committee. She is a Certified Brain Injury Specialist Trainer and serves as a legal expert consultant in pediatric brain injury.

Mark Halstead, MD

Mark Halstead

Mark Halstead, MD, is an Associate Professor, Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and Pediatrics, Washington University School of Medicine; Director, Sports Concussion Clinic; and Medical Director, Young Athlete Center. Dr. Halstead received his medical degree from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in 1998. After completing a residency and chief residency in pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin Children’s Hospital, he completed a primary care adult and pediatric sports medicine fellowship at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He served as a team physician for the St Louis Rams for 11 seasons and currently serves as team physician for the St Louis Blues, Washington University and Lafayette High School. He directs the concussion program for 7 local high schools in St Louis. Dr. Halstead has been listed as “Best Doctor in America” since 2007 (Best Doctors, Inc.). Dr. Halstead recently completed a six year term as a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Executive Committee for the Council on Sports Medicine and Fitness. He was elected to the Board of Directors of the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) in 2014 and serves as the chair of the International and Inter, organizational Committee. He also served as the lead author of the AAP’s clinical reports on “Sport, related concussions in children and adolescents” published in 2010 and “Return to Learning after Concussions” in 2013 and as a contributing author to AMSSM’s position statement on concussion in sports. He has been selected to serve on several CDC panels regarding concussions in youth sports and pediatrics. Dr. Halstead has been an invited speaker extensively around the United States on the topics of concussion in sports and other sports medicine related topics.