Several UT Knoxville facilities are being renamed as they transition to new uses. All of the names approved will honor families or individuals who have made a significant contribution to the university and its history. One of the names marks a first in UT history.

Fred D. Brown

The new Fred D. Brown Residence Hall is the first building on the UT Knoxville campus to be named for an African-American person.

“We are proud that we can carry on the legacy of these individuals who have contributed to UT’s rich diversity and inspiring history,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek.

Approved by the board were proposals to name:

• The new residence hall currently under construction on Andy Holt Avenue to the Fred D. Brown Jr. Residence Hall in honor of the longtime staff member who created the Office of Diversity Programs in the College of Engineering. The construction project is the first new residence hall to be built in forty-three years, and the hall will accommodate 700 men and women when it opens in 2014.

Now in its fortieth year, the Office of Diversity programs has recruited and supported more than 900 students from underrepresented groups who have graduated from the college. Brown founded it with just seventeen students, and his work has had a significant impact on the engineering profession.

Brown with students Robert Phillips and Marily Horhn in September 1973.

Brown graduated from Hall High School in Alcoa, Tennessee, and earned his college degree from the Tuskegee Institute. He did post-graduate work at UT, Tennessee State University, Fisk University, and Vanderbilt University. He taught at Hall High School in Alcoa and Oak Ridge High School. He was the first African-American teacher at Oak Ridge High soon after it was integrated and became the first African-American member of the Alcoa Board of Education.

• The former Student Health Center, 1818 Andy Holt Way, to Temple Hall in honor of Oliver P. Temple and his daughter, Mary Boyce Temple. The new Student Health Building opened last year on Volunteer Boulevard. The former health center is currently being renovated for College of Nursing and College of Arts and Sciences programs.

Two previous buildings and a street have been named for the Temples throughout UT history. Temple Hall once served as an assembly center on the Agriculture Campus but no longer exists. The main route through campus, Temple Avenue, was renamed Volunteer Boulevard. Temple Court, which housed Career Services on the corner of Cumberland and Volunteer Boulevard, was razed in late 2012 to make room for a larger Student Union now under construction.

Oliver Temple was a trustee of East Tennessee University, which was later named the University of Tennessee, from 1820 until his death in 1907. He was a Greenville, Tennessee, lawyer and once ran unsuccessfully for Congress against Andrew Johnson. He was a driving force in expanding UT’s agriculture programs and its land grant designation.

Mary Boyce Temple continued her father’s work by establishing a foundation in 1919 to purchase and breed purebred animals and improve plant breeding. She later gave her library to UT.

• The new football practice facility the Anderson Training Center in honor of the Anderson families of Knoxville and Florence, Alabama. The families’ generosity helped to make the new state-of-the-art facility a reality. This 145,000-square-foot building includes an amphitheater-style team room, coaches’ offices, position meeting rooms, a first-class dining facility, players’ lounge, a 7,000-square-foot locker room, and a 22,000 square-foot multilevel weight room, as well as a new training room and hydrotherapy area. The Anderson Training Center will be central to the physical training and development of all Tennessee athletic teams.

The board also approved a proposal to modify the name of the Frank H. McClung Museum to the Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture to better reflect its mission.

The John D. Tickle Engineering Building’s name was also modified to include the middle initial D of its benefactor, a 1965 graduate of the college. The Tickle building will be home to the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering. The building is set to open to students in fall 2013.

Read more about today’s Board of Trustees meeting at the University of Tennessee System website.

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C O N T A C T :

Karen Simsen (865-974-5186, karen.simsen@utk.edu)

The café, sponsored by Sysco Foods, operates from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Thursdays in the UT Visitors Center, 2712 Neyland Drive. Each luncheon typically consists of an intermezzo or small appetizer, salad or soup, entrée, and dessert. Advance tickets will be sold for the luncheons, and capacity is eighty diners. Cost will be $12, and the faculty-staff discount does not apply. For tickets and reservations, see Marcia Johnson in the Jessie Harris Building, Room 110, call 865-974-6645, or e-mail rhtm@utk.edu.

The southern French menu is:

Appetizer: Roquefort, Saint Albray, quince paste, and grapes. (Roquefort is the oldest and most renowned of the blue cheeses. Saint Albray is French soft-ripened cheese, and quince is a golden round fruit.)

Salad: Duck confit mesclun (cured and poached duck served shredded with leafy greens, candied walnuts, and warm sherry chardonnay vinaigrette).

Main course: Chicken Provencal (chicken stew with emphasis on tomatoes and garlic).

Dessert: Pots de crème (loose French custard).

Lunch dates and themes for the remainder of the semester are:

• March 21, Northern France
• April 4, Sushi
• April 11, Japanese Cookery
• April 18, Spain
• April 25, Japanese/French Fusion
• May 2, Spanish/Italian Fusion

The luncheons are produced through a collaboration of HRT 445 (the Advanced Food Production and Service Management class), the UT Culinary Institute, and the Pellissippi Culinary Institute.

Students enrolled in the UT course will work as general managers, dining room attendants, assistant kitchen managers, dining room managers, and dining room service employees. They will be responsible for the execution of the dining experience, managing staff, menu planning, food preparation, cooking, cost analysis, service during meal time, marketing of the event, and customer satisfaction activities.

Pellissippi State students will do most of the food preparation and will assist with dining room responsibilities.

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C O N T A C T :

Marcia Johnson (for tickets): (865-974-6645, rhtm@utk.edu)

Christine Copelan (ccopela7@utk.edu)

Gayle Baker

It’s always a challenge for faculty to stay on top of the advancing technology in their fields. That’s especially true for those who work in libraries.

Professor Gayle Baker, the electronic resources coordinator for UT Libraries, said the technological advances in her field are growing more and more complex each year.

“Publishers of electronic resources are coming out with mobile apps and special-purpose widgets to add to browser toolbars,” she said. “They also are creating new electronic resources, including scanned images of centuries-old documents, as well as collections of streaming videos.”

It’s Baker’s job to stay current on electronic resources for faculty and students, and then make sure they know how to use them.

“More than anyone, Gayle is responsible for the excellent electronic resources available to UT faculty and students,” said Steve Smith, dean of the UT Libraries. “She leverages her deep knowledge of scholarly databases to bring the very best library resources to our campus scholars.”

Baker also brings her vast experience to bear on research. She has been a key partner in a recent study of return on investment in academic libraries.

Baker became interested in library science as a graduate student at The Ohio State University in the early 70s, though that course of study wasn’t offered at the time. She earned a master’s degree in computer and information science and later earned a master’s degree in library science from the University of Alabama. She came to UT in 1990 as the science and technology coordinator, where she supervised science and technology librarians in Hodges Library. She’s been the electronic resources coordinator since 1993, when librarians performed the vast majority of database searches in the libraries at UT and the cost of access was based upon the amount of time connected with the database and the number of records with citation. There were very few databases of newspapers at the time, and none of scholarly journals.

Baker has served on UT’s Research Council and is a member of the International Advisory Board of Project COUNTER, an international initiative serving librarians and publishers by setting standards for recording and reporting online usage statistics.

When she’s not in the library, Baker and her husband spend their weekends on their farm in the Cumberland Gap area of southwest Virginia where they grow vegetables and hay and raise cattle.

Thura Mack

Thura Mack has been working in libraries since she was in high school. As a student worker, she was assigned to work with an outreach librarian who delivered books on tape for the blind in the community.

“Since I was close to graduating from high school, she made me promise that I would go to college to become a librarian one day,” said Mack. “She provided the coaching to make sure that I had a plan for my education and professional success. I think she would be proud that thirty-three years later, I am still a librarian and now have a role as a coordinator for outreach services.”

Mack is the coordinator of community learning services and diversity programs for UT Libraries. She holds a master’s degree in library science from UT and has worked at the university since 1980.

Since 2003 she has been a member of the Life of the Mind committee, helping to select the common reading book for each year’s incoming freshmen. Mack is currently working with colleagues on the Big Orange STEM Symposium (BOSS), an outreach project for high school students interested in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Mack and her team are working with UT’s Outreach and Engagement Council, the L&N STEM Academy, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and high schools from around the state.

“In my mind, BOSS is a success story because it has generated interest, collaboration, and enthusiasm in the community and has intellectual promise beyond the program itself,” said Mack. “We hope to make a huge impact in the lives of these high school students and encourage them to pursue their passions at UT.”

“Thura is an expert at community building,” Smith said. “She gives tirelessly of her time and talents to high school students and to faculty colleagues, always thinking of what will benefit the community and the library profession.”

Smith said Mack also has been key to the success of the library’s Diversity Residency Program, a program that enhances the ethnic and cultural diversity of UT Libraries by bringing recent library and information science graduates into the library for work experience.

“Thura is a committed advocate for diversity and one of the best mentors I have ever seen,” Smith said.

In her free time, Mack enjoys spending time with her daughter Niyia, who lives in Los Angeles, and traveling to visit other family members. She also works with toddlers and the elderly at her church.

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C O N T A C T :

Rebekah Winkler (865-974-8304, rwinkler@utk.edu)

Michelle Brown

Michelle Brown, an assistant professor of sociology who teaches classes about law and justice, often has her students talk about difficult topics, such as pain, suffering, and societal exclusion.

These topics can make people squirm in their seats, but Brown manages to get her students to participate in the discussion without hesitation. What is her secret?

She allows her students to be uncomfortable and ask questions, and she hopes their discomfort inspires new ideas that reach beyond traditional thinking.

“Holding the position of discomfort—to borrow from yoga class—or being caught in contexts of uncertainty is a learning and transformative space. These are the places where we are pushed creatively, imaginatively to think beyond the oppressive structures of everyday life,” Brown said.

She has accomplished a great deal since she joined UT, and she recently was honored by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.

“Michelle Brown is a productive and hard-working junior faculty member who has accomplished a great deal since she joined our faculty,” said Theresa Lee, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Out of the classroom, Brown’s current project examines how people on the fringe of society see themselves beyond legal structures such as citizenship. From these often faceless and voiceless communities, she seeks new ideas about social justice.

“In prisons, camps, and other total institutions as well as in settings of extreme poverty and conflict and disaster dislocation, people are stripped of political rights and compelled to improvise new perspectives and makeshift communities to survive. I see these as spaces where emergent models for social justice are lived and embodied,” Brown said.

Being reminded of the world’s injustice on a regular basis, it might be easy to have a lackluster outlook on life, but Brown does not. Rather, her work inspires her to strive for a better tomorrow.

“A lot of people assume that my work has an unusually dark or bleak focus, but actually I am drawn—or compelled—to these spaces for hopeful reasons,” she said. “I want to learn more about how transformation takes shape amid competing visions of justice and in the starkest of human conditions.”

Brown came to UT in 2011. She previously worked at Indiana University and Ohio University. She did her undergraduate and graduate work at Indiana University.

Tom Burman

As his time as head of the Department of History comes to a close, professor Thomas Burman says he learned more than expected—not just about leadership but also about Booker T. Washington, women travelers of early modern Japan, and many more topics that his colleagues study.

“As department head, I had to read my colleagues’ scholarly work particularly closely. This has been a marvelous experience because we have such a great group of scholars in the department,” Burman said.

His colleagues’ work was more than a source of information; it was also a source of inspiration. From these works, Burman’s passion as a historian grew.

“Reading the recent works of the faculty members of UT’s history department makes me want to be a better historian,” Burman said.

Burman’s own area of research covers medieval Latin and Arabic manuscripts, and his research inspiration comes from the source of his studies:

“Copies of medieval encyclopedias or copies of the Qur’an that circulated in Europe and were read by European scholars. Holding these old, old handwritten books, often with notes scribbled in the margins by medieval readers, always gets my creative juices going,” Burman said.

Burman’s work does not go unnoticed. He was recently awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship for the 2013–2014 academic year, and Dean Lee is delighted by his success.

“He was awarded the fellowship to work on his project titled ‘The Dominicans, Islam, and Christian Thought, 1220–1320.’ This is the second NEH fellowship awarded to Tom; the other one was in 2002–2003,” Lee said.

He derives the material for his graduate student seminar from his research and from a favorite book, which he hopes will inspire the next generation of historians.

“The class is built around George Steiner’s amazing book, After Babel: Aspects of Language and Translation. It’s a book that’s been inspiring me for fifteen years, and I hope it will do the same for them,” he said.

Burman’s term as head of the Department of History ends this summer when he resumes his normal faculty duties.

Burman has been at UT since 1991. He has a bachelor’s degree from Whitman College in Washington State, a master’s degree from the University of Toronto, a Licentiate of Mediaeval Studies from the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies in Toronto, and a doctorate from the University of Toronto.

Witek Nazarewicz

Professor of Physics Witek Nazarewicz is a landscaper, but not in the traditional sense. Where some may fuss with plants and weeds to make a patch of land beautiful, Nazarewicz uses supercomputers to map out the landscape of atomic nuclei to widen the understanding of nuclear landscape.

His work as a nuclear theorist led him to the discovery that the chart of nuclides has more than double the number of nuclei previously identified. He carried out this research using the density functional theory, which is used to describe molecules, solids, and atomic nuclei.

But he did not make this pivotal discovery on his own. He inspired his students, both undergraduate and graduate, to assist him with this research.

“The students made important contributions to this work. They identified and counted the experimentally known isotopes, edited figures, compiled data, and developed codes to graph data for tables and figures,” Nazarewicz said. “It was a pleasure seeing their skills grow through this process.”

Guided by Nazarewicz’s assistance and knowledge, the team made a permanent mark on the frontier of nuclear physics.

Nazarewicz is the recipient of several awards in his field, including the 2012 Tom W. Bonner Prize in Nuclear Physics, hailed as the “most prestigious nuclear physics prize in the United States,” as well the 2012 Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Distinguished Scientist Award.

“Nazarewicz is an accomplished senior member of the faculty who has earned an international reputation,” Lee said.

Nazarewicz came to East Tennessee in 1991 as a research professor at the UT-ORNL Joint Institute for Heavy Ion Research, and joined UT’s physics faculty as a professor in 1995.

Althea Murphy-Price

For Assistant Professor of Art Althea Murphy-Price, hair serves as an inspiration, a tool, and a process.

Using synthetic hair sent through a variety of processes, she sculpts and makes prints that comment on a personal and cultural history of hair.

“I am interested in hair as a symbol of assimilation, culture, race, and fashion, and my creative process is one that parallels an approach to styling hair—the variable and compliant nature of hair allows me the freedom to work in a number of ways rooted in ornamentation,” Murphy-Price said.

The project grew from her personal history with hair but soon expanded to explore the role of hair in African-American culture.

“Art is all about exploration. Through the creative process you learn so much about who you are,” Murphy-Price said.

Murphy-Price’s work is noticed beyond UT.

“She is one of forty-seven artists from a pool of over 400 nominees selected for the Southern Graphics Council International’s Traveling Exhibition,” Lee said.

Seeing her students work through the creative process motivates Murphy-Price and influences her own work. In the studio, she encourages her students to explore different methods and to revisit their work—sometimes asking them to do unconventional things, such as cutting up their artwork and reworking it. The time spent with her students is reflected in her own work.

“I learn a lot from my students. I want to create an environment where dialogue can be exchanged,” Murphy-Price said.

Murphy-Price has been at UT since 2010. She attended the University of Colorado and earned her bachelor’s degree from Spelman College in Atlanta, her master’s degree from Purdue University and her Master of Fine Arts from Temple University. She also studied in Rome and Florence, Italy.

Visit altheamurphyprice.com for samples of Murphy-Price’s work.

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C O N T A C T :

Christine Copelan (865-974-2225, ccopela7@utk.edu)

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

He replaces Jan Williams, who retired on February 28 after more than twelve years as dean of the college and thirty-five years at the university.

Before coming to UT, Mangum was senior associate dean at The Ohio State University Max M. Fisher College of Business.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in human resource management from the University of Utah. He earned a doctorate in economics from George Washington University.

He taught and conducted research at George Washington University before joining the faculty of The Ohio State University in 1983. He taught in the Department of Management and Human Resources for several years before managing the department. He became senior associate dean of the Fisher College of Business in 1996.

Steve Adair

Horse lovers from across the Southeast travel hours upon hours to bring their beloved four-legged family members to see Steve Adair.

An associate professor of equine surgery in the College of Veterinary Medicine and a veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation specialist, Adair is known for paying special attention to his patients during their treatment and rehabilitation.

“Dr. Adair has unbridled passion for all horses, but a special place in his heart for equine athletes,” said Jim Thompson, dean of the college.

Adair said when it comes to diagnosing medical problems, there’s a key difference between animal patients and human patients.

“Animals have a different way of communicating their pain with us,” he said. “There’s a process of examination, but also a look in the (animal’s) eye. Over time you develop a sixth sense.

“I enjoy that challenge, and the challenge of teaching students to look for those cues.”

After earning his doctorate in veterinary medicine from Auburn University in 1984, Adair went into private practice in Louisiana, spending much of his time around racehorses. He became interested in horses’ rehabilitation and was accepted to a surgical residency at UT in 1986. He joined UT’s faculty in 1990. His research focuses on laminitis, a foot disease common in horses. He was a charter member of the American College of Veterinary Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation.

Adair treating Pattycake.

Adair primarily treats racehorses and other equine athletes, but one of his better-known cases was that of Pattycake, a five-year-old saddle horse burned in a barn fire. Pattycake had the worst burns Adair had seen in his twenty-five year career. Through five months of treatment at the College of Veterinary Medicine, under the care of Adair, three additional doctors, and eight students, Pattycake mended enough to move to a rehab center closer to her home in Sewanee, Tennessee.

“Dr. Adair is a gifted surgeon who works hard to fully understand his patients’ injuries,” said Thompson, “and then works even harder to develop the best treatment and rehabilitation plans to bring his patients back to their greatest level of performance.”

Apart from his UT work, Adair serves as rehabilitation specialist for the Budweiser Clydesdales.

He is an avid fisherman and he and his wife, Stacey, also a veterinarian, enjoy bird watching across the United States and Central America, and working on their farm in Maryville.

Diane Hendrix

Diane Hendrix chose to go into veterinary medicine rather than human medicine because she liked the idea of working with multiple species. A professor of ophthalmology in the College of Veterinary Medicine, her work takes her from the classroom to the exam room to the operating room.

“A great day for me is when I’ve worked on at least four different species,” said Hendrix. “All these eyes are different. All the anatomies are different. It’s challenging and exciting.”

After receiving her doctorate in veterinary medicine from UT in 1990, she interned at North Carolina State University before spending two years in general practice and then entering a residency at the University of Florida. Her two years in general practice prepared her for what many of her students will face when they graduate. Though Hendrix and her students see a myriad of cases at the College of Veterinary Medicine, Hendrix’s students will see fewer ophthalmology cases in their day-to-day practices once they leave UT.

“At UT we see a lot of cases every day that they aren’t going to see very much of in general practice,” she said. “We’re teaching at all levels. And we have to keep learning ourselves all the time because we’re responsible for teaching our students and our residents the most up-to-date information.”

Thompson calls Hendrix “one of our college’s most gifted clinicians.”

“We all love the enthusiasm, positive attitude, and compassion she brings to work every day,” he said. “She is also a spectacular teacher. It’s fun to see her eyes sparkle when she’s teaching. She helps make our college and hospital a wonderful place.”

Hendrix’s research focuses on corneal disease in horses and finding a new type of therapy for treating the most common form of eye cancer, squamous cell carcinoma.

When she’s not in the classroom or the operating room, Hendrix enjoys hiking in the Smokies with her husband and their two teenage daughters.

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C O N T A C T :

Rebekah Winkler (865-974-8304, rwinkler@utk.edu)

The reception begins at 7:00 p.m., followed by the 8:00 p.m. screening. A question-and-answer session with film writer and director Elvin Ross will follow at 9:00 p.m. To RSVP, contact Beth Gladden at 865-974-9008 or bgladden@utk.edu.

For more information on the movie, visit its website.

A computer image of the entire novel of Moby Dick produced through Meaney and Szczepanski’s code.

How does a computer view the human world—say, the human genome or literary works such as Herman Melville’s Moby Dick?

Two UT professors have provided some insight, thanks to a code they’ve created that allows the computer to transform large-scale data and information into digital images—compressed pictures composed of colorful lines.

Evan Meaney, assistant professor of art, and Amy Szczepanski, assistant research professor in electrical engineering and computer science, have made a body of artwork called Null_Sets using their code. They’ve also provided a way for the public to make their own art using the code, whether it’s converting a love song, the Patriot Act, or the deed of one’s house into colorful images.

“The goal is to challenge people’s assumptions about what computer data looks like,” Szczepanski said. “In some sense, people trust the computer too much and imagine it as some magical box that does something. They forget that there’s actually a lot of human work that went on behind the scenes to make it happen.

“In as much as we mechanize things we’re still doing things for people and to interact with people.”

Amy Szczepanski

Szczepanski and Meaney designed their approach by running code on a supercomputer at the Remote Data Analysis and Visualization Center (RDAV) to create many test images. The center is an initiative of the UT Joint Institute for Computational Science and Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The idea for the project began in 2010 while Szczepanski was working on an RDAV project that was trying to find ways to encourage researchers in other fields besides the hard sciences to consider using supercomputing to help their work.

She contacted Meaney, a digital artist, after a recommendation from UT’s visual arts committee. Together, they wrote the code for Null_Sets. The UT Research Foundation is currently working on patenting the code.

The project is receiving widespread recognition. Meaney recently won the jury prize for the Null_Sets project at the Distributed Microtopias exhibition at the fifteenth Annual Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival in Ithaca, New York.

Evan Meaney

Meaney has applied for a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts that would allow him and Szczepanski to turn Null_Sets into an iPad and Android app. Right now, the Null_Sets website has a size limit that means large amounts of data can’t be converted, and the server times out after a certain period. With the app, users would be able to upload and convert large amounts of data conveniently.

“We want to put a better face on it and have it be more user-friendly,” Meaney said.

To learn more about the Null_Sets project, view the collection of art, or make your own, visit Meaney’s website.

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

David Cihak

While in college, David Cihak worked in a total care facility for elderly people with disabilities where he helped them with daily activities—from getting up to dressing to feeding themselves.

Although meaningful, it encouraged him to take a different career path.

“They passed away, which was extremely sad when you’re eighteen,” he said. “It made me realize that maybe my focus should be working with children, adolescents, and young adults to ensure that they learn the skills they need so they can live in a far more independent manner.”

Cihak, an associate professor of special education, has dedicated his life to that mission. He is co-investigator of UT’s FUTURE Program, an initiative in its third year that aims to give students with intellectual disabilities a college experience while also teaching them how to live and work independently.

Bob Rider, dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, noted that Cihak’s involvement with the FUTURE Program is one of his most valuable contributions to the university.

“Through David’s and his colleagues’ efforts, these students are now able to attend UT and enjoy and experience what it means to be a college student,” he said. “David’s work—focusing on people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, including autism—is widely known and highly respected.”

With the aspiring special education teachers who come through his classes, Cihak shares research, recommended practices and anecdotes from his time as a classroom teacher, as well as the history of how people with disabilities have been treated. He also helps his students gain experience working with students with disabilities in area schools. His students must complete two practicums and a yearlong professional internship to gather real-world classroom experiences before graduating.

“I try to inspire them by showing the importance of being an effective teacher, building relationships, and providing opportunities for all people to live, to work, and to participate actively in an integrated society,” he said.

Sarah Hillyer

Sarah Hillyer wants students who desire to work in sports-related disciplines to know they have options beyond the corporate arena or for-profit collegiate athletics. They can use sports to bring peace around the world.

She’s demonstrating it with her life. Hillyer, an assistant clinical professor in the Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sports Studies, directs UT’s Center for Sport, Peace, and Society. The center, which opened in January 2012, is partnering with the US Department of State on an initiative to empower women and girls worldwide through sports.

The center also trains and equips students and community members to enact social change in their part of the globe.

“No matter what the discipline is, we all have something we’re really passionate about,” Hillyer said. “Most of us can identify a turning point in our life—a crossroads—where we said, ‘Am I going to choose to make the world a better place, or will I choose apathy and just make it through?’ It’s really about empowering students to create a better world for all of us if that’s what they choose to do with sports.”

The turning point for Hillyer came while she was a college basketball player. Coaches were under such intense pressure to win that student athletes sometimes felt they were nothing more than a jersey number, she said. Some coaches imposed strict weight restrictions and benched players who exceeded the weight by just a few pounds. Because of this, Hillyer developed unhealthy habits.

“Not only did I graduate with a degree in sports management, I also graduated with a severe eating disorder,” she said.

She also had lost her love for sports. While in rehabilitation for her eating disorder, she went through a period of reflection and realized that sports could be used for good or ill.

“Sport is what people choose to do with it,” she said. “I could walk away from it or do something empowering with it.”

Out of this came Sport 4 Peace, an organization Hillyer created to use athletics in a humanitarian way. It led her to China, Iran, Israel, Iraq, and ultimately UT, where she completed her doctoral studies.

The organization is the model for UT’s Center for Sport, Peace, and Society.

Bob Rider, dean of the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences, which houses the center, said its work—guided by Hillyer—spreads the UT brand all over the world.

“Sarah brings very special talents to our college and the university, helping to lift up girls and women from developing countries and repressed societies,” he said. “She is an amazing ambassador for our university and so wonderfully represents what it means to be a true Volunteer.”

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CONTACT:

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

Thomas K. Davis

As an undergraduate student at Cornell University, Thomas K. Davis studied under architecture professors who infused their teaching with such enthusiasm that it birthed in him the desire to do the same.

“I knew then that I wanted to be a teacher,” he said. “I have taught for fifty-six semesters, and I want to give my students that same passion. The more I work with students, there’s so much more I realize I want to learn.”

Davis, who came to UT in 1994, is an associate professor of architecture. His primary interest is urban and architectural design. He teaches a seminar on issues in urban design; a course on architecture, the city and film; and an urban design studio course.

For three years, he served as director of the Nashville Civic Design Center—a nonprofit organization that addresses the city’s urban design challenges—and is on its board of directors. UT students use the center as a satellite learning space and studio. He also established a summer learning program for students in Tennessee’s capital city.

Davis recently received national recognition for his community outreach program with students, Collaborations in Transit-Oriented Development, which aims to produce a walkable, pedestrian-friendly Nashville.

“Our teaching and applied research are having a direct and lasting impact on the people and places, culture and community, environmental health, and economic vitality in the state of Tennessee and beyond, and professor Davis’s longtime work as a leader of urban design in Nashville epitomizes this,” said Scott Poole, dean of the College of Architecture and Design.

Davis noted that as he works with students, he often encourages them to use their eye and hand to draw—instead of immediately going to the computer—as they attempt to solve architectural problems because it enhances their conceptual thinking.

“I hope they develop a life-long interest and ability to keep on learning,” Davis said. “I want them to have learned to see architecture not just as good-looking objects, but as well-designed spaces and places that people occupy.”

Mary Beth Robinson

Mary Beth Robinson (in blue) with students, from left, Teal Nabors, Michelle Hawfield, and Lindsay Payne.

For interior design students, attending one of Mary Beth Robinson’s classes often results in self discovery.

Robinson, an associate professor of interior design, invites students to explore how they relate to the environment through their own history—important life moments, where they came from, and what sensory influences shaped them.

“It’s important for students to understand what their own motivations are,” she said. “They’re designing and sometimes they’re not quite sure where it’s coming from. Once they pinpoint it, it really frees them up to move on, or inspires them as they design for themselves or for others.”

Robinson has taught interior design at UT for ten years. Prior to that, she was a design practitioner.

“Working with young people in the office really led me to knowing that eventually I would want to go into teaching and share not just the practice aspect, but also learning about design,” she said. “Seeing students discover their passion and what they want to do in life and connecting them to that is something that has always inspired me to teach.”

For many years, she coordinated the Interior Design Program’s summer internship course. She will soon transition into a part-time teaching role as a professor, which will allow her to pursue other ventures while staying connected to the university.

David Matthews, associate dean of the College of Architecture and Design and chair of the Interior Design Program, said Robinson’s love for both the profession and the art of teaching “is evidenced in the high caliber of students who leave our program and enter into varying and robust careers.

“She has modeled the integration of research and design in her teaching by providing opportunities for student to use emerging knowledge as they design interior environments,” he said.

Robinson has an interest in helping students understand how interior space can contribute to wellness and human behavior. She takes her students on field trips to museums and studios in various cities so they can see the practical application of design in action.

“Whether it’s your personal space or a retail environment, it’s how to manipulate all elements of design—lighting, positioning of partitions, color, the furnishings, every aspect—and then understanding the human behavior piece of it and how space can be transformed to benefit how people use that space,” she said.

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C O N T A C T :

Lola Alapo (865-974-3993, lola.alapo@tennessee.edu)

Nan Gaylord

If you ask Nan Gaylord what our nation’s most valuable resource is, she won’t answer with water, oil, or natural gas. She’ll tell you, it is our children.

“If children are not well cared for, our next generation will be troubled,” said Gaylord, an associate professor of nursing.

It was this strong belief that led Gaylord to pursue a career in pediatric nursing.

Gaylord is founder of the Vine School Health Center, a school-based health care clinic that serves students in Knox County who have limited access to health care.

“My research and work are dedicated to the access to health care for children, which will hopefully allow for the consideration of alternative delivery sites for care, alternative providers of care, and reimbursement of the care provided in these sites,” she said.

Gaylord has expanded the reach of the Vine School Health Center by using telehealth technologies. Telehealth is the use of digital technologies to deliver medical care, health education, and public health services by connecting multiple users in separate locations.

“Dr. Gaylord is an inspiration to her students, colleagues, and the patients that she serves,” said Dean Vickie Niederhauser. “As the founder and director for the Vine School Health Center, Dr. Gaylord has created a national model for care of children in community-based settings.”

Gaylord inspires many people with her passionate advocacy for children on both the local and national levels.

“Dr. Gaylord is the epitome of a nursing educator and children’s advocate,” said Alicia Alexander-Helms, a former student and now Vine Health Center colleague. “She is a great leader and an empowered woman. She serves her students and community in a tireless manner.”

Gaylord hopes this excitement is contagious and that the next generation of advanced practice nurses she mentors will enjoy their professional life as much as she does.

“I hope I inspire my students to think outside our nursing box, to think about what is possible and what is best for our little patients, and then plan accordingly to see that possibility actualized,” she said.

Peggy Pierce

The aging baby boomer population, coupled with changes in health care, has significantly increased the critical need for advanced practice nurses.

Peggy Pierce, assistant professor of nursing, is tackling this national problem one student at a time. As chair of the College of Nursing’s Doctor of Nursing Practice Program, she helps students become clinical practice leaders and educators.

“Our students come from many different backgrounds and experiences,” she said. “They work, they have families, but they are trying to accomplish this grand goal. We want to help them move toward this goal in a way that works for them while also meeting our high program standards.”

Ben Barbour, a graduate student in nursing, said Pierce inspires him to approach all of life’s problems from multiple angles.

“Dr. Pierce encourages her students to find creative solutions to complex problems, and base their decisions on sound evidence,” he said. ”She inspires students to treat all patients in a holistic manner, and she has expanded my knowledge of complementary and alternative medical therapies.”

Pierce is making UT history by leading the first interprofessional team-based education program between nursing, industrial engineering, medical, and pharmacy students. This spring, a group of students from the different disciplines began learning together using telehealth technology in the delivery of patient care at clinics around Knox County. This way of learning gives students real-world clinical experience, which studies show improves patient results.

“The future of healthcare reform will depend on cohesive teamwork to provide safe, efficient, and effective patient-centered care models,” said Dean Vickie Niederhauser. “Dr. Pierce’s leadership in this interprofessional endeavor is an inspiration to all the students.”

When Pierce isn’t teaching students in a classroom or clinic, you can find her teaching an early morning outdoor “bootcamp” fitness class.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Heins (865-974-5034, wheins@utk.edu)

Brad Collett

Just thirteen years ago, Brad Collett was an honors student at UT, working on his bachelor’s degree in ornamental horticulture and landscape design.

He’s now an assistant professor of plant sciences and interim chair of UT’s graduate Landscape Architecture Program.

“I always had thought that at some point in my career I would seek an opportunity to share my passion for landscape architecture with aspiring professionals,” he said. “To have the opportunity to do this here at UT, a place about which I am equally passionate, is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

Collett joined the faculty in 2011 to help grow the new master’s degree in landscape architecture, an interdisciplinary program of the College of Architecture and Design and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

He brought to the position a broad professional experience gained from six years as a senior associate at a firm in Orlando, Florida. There, he managed master planning and landscape architecture projects and helped direct the firm’s sustainable design initiatives.

“What inspired me as student in the landscape design program is quite similar to what now drives me as a member of the landscape architecture faculty—a passionate belief that through responsible planning of landscapes and creative, innovative design of the built environment, we can have a profound impact on quality of life and the sustainability of natural resources,” Collett said.

Collett said he arrived at UT in 1997 without any idea of what field he wanted to study. He credits the insight of “excellent undergraduate advisors” who helped him discover and cultivate his interests.

“I am so grateful to these individuals who recognized my interests in service to the community, environmental sciences, and creative arts that are fundamental to the profession of landscape architecture,” he said.

He earned his master’s in landscape architecture from The Ohio State University in 2004.

UT’s Landscape Architecture Program began in 2008 after years of work from the campus community and professionals across the state. The Landscape Architecture Accreditation Board (LAAB) granted the program full accreditation last August, making it the only accredited landscape architecture program in the state.

“Brad Collett has been extraordinary in galvanizing the combined efforts of faculty, staff, and students to get the landscape architecture program accredited. The commitment of the leadership and level of excellence displayed by this relatively young program were lauded by the visiting team,” said Caula Beyl, dean of the college.

Collett said the accreditation means a bright future for the program.

“We seek to continue to grow our program by attracting even more exceptional and passionate students,” he said.

The program’s faculty and students have been a part of several inspiring outreach programs and collaborations such as the New Norris House, the Living Light house, and Plan East Tennessee, a regional community planning initiative.

“Brad also has supported a culture of service learning with students engaged in providing input on storm water issues in Knoxville and Knox County, thus positively impacting our community,” Beyl said.

Brad and his wife, Nicki, have two young children and enjoy visiting family in Ohio and North Carolina.

Lannett Edwards

From funny videos to group competitions and love songs, Lannett Edwards inspires the laughs that lead to learning.

The animal science professor’s unique approach to teaching reproduction has left her students with fond memories.

“I never knew there were so many country songs that could be related to reproduction—and Dr. Edwards used them all,” noted former student Elizabeth Johnson. “I still can’t listen to Brad Paisely’s Waiting on a Woman, without thinking of sperm sitting in the oviduct waiting on the follicle to ovulate.”

Professor Edwards teaches graduate seminars and reproductive physiology to undergraduates and directs the department’s graduate studies.

She enjoys finding different approaches to delivering the many scientific facts. And her students enjoy how much effort she puts into it.

“Each new lecture she teaches is a blank canvas waiting to be turned into a masterpiece of knowledge and enthusiasm for a science,” said Johnson, who is now studying to be a veterinarian.

Edwards enjoys guiding her students.

“I want to teach the undergrads that they can accomplish anything if they make the effort,” she said. “The graduate level is more about the content and realizing that everything they are learning is meaningful and to not get so caught up in the nitpicky details. It really is about agriculture, where they fit in, and how it will open doors for them.”

“Lannett Edwards is not only a talented and innovative teacher, but she also has helped to develop a much needed course in research ethics for the life sciences, a topic of great national interest for graduate students,” Beyl said. “As the graduate director for animal science, she has instituted a set of best practices focused on tracking progression of students toward degree completion that has become a model for the college.”

Edwards earned a bachelor’s degree from Austin Peay State University, a master’s degree from Mississippi State University, and a doctorate from the University of Florida.

A postdoctoral fellowship with the US Department of Agriculture gave her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with researcher Ian Wilmut in Edinburgh, Scotland. He led the team that successfully cloned the sheep, Dolly, who was the first mammal cloned from an adult cell.

Just a few years later, in 2000, Edwards and her husband, Neal Schrick, also made international news by successfully cloning Milly, a Jersey cow, at UT. Schrick, professor of animal science, is now department head.

Edwards grew up in rural Houston County, Tennessee. She was a 4-Her and learned the value of hard work from her dairy-farming grandparents.

“I loved that type of life, the hard work and the getting up early aspect,” she said. “I grew up with those agricultural influences and appreciating where food comes from, especially dairy.”

Edwards hopes to share the same simple pleasures with her children, Laney, age ten, and Tyler, twelve. They are developing a small farm in Sevier County.

And while she’s inspired so many students, she can’t point to just one source of inspiration. Her mom motivates and guides her through her challenging career and busy life.

She also still thinks a lot about Dolly, the sheep, and how she set the course for her research.

“Even after her death, Dolly reminds me that the impossible is possible.”

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C O N T A C T :

Karen Simsen (865-974-5186, karen.simsen@utk.edu)

Post your own shout-outs on the Faculty Shout Out Page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYJvvpERDYU

Matthew Theriot

Matthew Theriot, associate professor in the College of Social Work, teaches a variety of courses, from undergraduate social work classes to honors seminars about gender roles on TV to freshman seminars about maniacs and psycho killers.

But no matter what the subject, a constant theme runs through every class he teaches: he wants his students to love learning.

“I want students to be excited about learning and to see the value in new knowledge. I get to teach different topics that are personally and professionally important to me, and I strive to share my excitement for these topics with my students,” Theriot said.

Theriot’s passion for helping youth inspires his students—and his colleagues.

“His scholarship in the area of juvenile violence and delinquency is critically important in today’s world. His commitment to young people in school settings and in the university setting is an inspiration to those of us who believe that the youths of today are the promise of tomorrow,” said Karen Sowers, dean of the College of Social Work.

Theriot said he is always looking for ways to improve.

“When a class goes well and students are engaged and energetic and excited about learning, I get a good feeling that lasts all day, but when a class doesn’t go as well as planned, I immediately start working on how to make it better for the next time. That constant drive to be a better teacher motivates and inspires me,” he said.

Theriot leads his classes by example, taking a great interest in learning about the people he encounters at UT.

“Meeting professors, staff, and students from across the university and learning about what they do and hearing what they care about are amazing privileges. The diverse mix of people, ideas, and interests on this campus is inspirational,” he said.

Theriot has taught at UT since 2003.

John Wodarski

From his research on HIV/AIDS prevention with Caribbean youth to his research on health information technology in rural East Tennessee, John Wodarski works to solve societal problems.

A professor in the College of Social Work, his research focuses largely on the wellbeing of children and adolescents, especially those at risk for HIV/AIDS and substance abuse.

“Wodarski’s research has significantly influenced practice with HIV and substance abusing populations. Concentrating on interventions that are effective and translate well into real-world settings, his extensive research findings have improved the lives of many of our most vulnerable citizens,” Sowers said.

Wodarski’s research goes hand-in-hand with his position as senior research scientist at UT’s Children’s Mental Health Service Research Center. The center improves the lives of at-risk youth and their families by researching the health and social service systems that care for them. It is a national leader in research on organizations that provide mental health and child welfare services to youth and families.

But Wodarski does not leave his research at the center. He brings it to his classes where students share his vision of a better tomorrow.

“I want quality research to enhance student learning and inspire them to work on projects related to solving societal problems,” Wodarski said.

John Wodarski holds a doctorate in social work from Washington University in St. Louis and has been at UT since May 2000.

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C O N T A C T :

Christine Copelan (865-974-2225, ccopela7@utk.edu)

Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

Chris Cherry

We live in a transient society. And with travel come decisions that impact our health, economy, and environment.

This is why Chris Cherry chose transportation engineering as his life’s work.

“Transportation engineering really is something that impacts everyone daily,” said Cherry. “It is also quite complex as it deals almost exclusively with human behavior and decision making.”

Cherry, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, is responsible for launching the nation’s first automated e-bike sharing system on UT’s campus. Called CycleUShare, it is a research and education project he works on with students.

“The electric bicycle sharing project has really required us to think outside the box and come up with some creative solutions,” said Casey Langford, a doctoral student. ”Dr. Cherry has been very hands-on with the project and has put in several long nights working with me and the other students in the lab, which really inspires us to work just as hard.”

Dayakar Penumadu, department head, said UT is “fortunate to have Dr. Cherry on our faculty addressing the nexus between novel transportation technologies, including e-bikes, energy, and public health. He is very passionate about making the UT campus amenable to green transportation.”

Cherry also has published multiple studies that have garnered international attention from media outlets such as US News and World Report, Time, and the Wall Street Journal.

Cherry hopes his research will influence transportation policy toward technologies and systems that encourage effective and efficient use of the world’s scarce resources.

He said he’s trying to inspire his students so they will have an impact on the future.

“We have serious problems related to our transportation and we need professionals that are serious and creative about addressing the problems,” he said. “Many of these problems are new, some are old, all have big impacts, and I try to inspire my students by showing them how much room there is to improve the well-being of so many people.”

Lynne Parker

Question your assumptions.

Lynne Parker, professor and associate head in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, does this in her own research. And she urges her students to do the same.

“Do we presume something can or can’t be done, just because most people presume it is that way?” said Parker. “I try to inspire students to see if revolutionary new ideas can result.”

Hao Zhang, a doctoral student, said Parker constantly challenges his work and helps him find the missing links in his ideas.

“Dr. Parker helps me analyze the pros and cons and suggests real-world applications to use my methods,” said Zhang. “Most importantly, she changes my way of thinking and always instructs me to think critically.”

Parker is a leading researcher in the field of distributed multirobot systems.

Parker’s work involves developing robots that are able to perform society’s most mundane and challenging tasks.

“Robots could help us around the house or the office, so that we can be more productive,” she said.

One ongoing project in Parker’s lab is training a robot to teach life skills to adults with learning disabilities. She and her students are working with the robot so that it can visually recognize the activity of the human, determine whether the activity is correctly producing the required skill, and provide the appropriate feedback to the human.

Parker is also a faculty mentor with her department’s STARS (Students and Technology in Academia, Research, and Service) student mentoring program. The program matches student volunteers with introductory computing students to help them become more comfortable with computing capabilities.

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C O N T A C T :

Whitney Heins (865-974-5034, wheins@utk.edu)

Innovative teaching. Encouraging demeanor. A passion for the subject. Contagious enthusiasm. All of these traits help inspire students to great ideas. Here are two faculty members from the College of Business Administration whose teaching, research, and community service are both inspired and inspiring.

Mohammed Mohsin

Mohammed Mohsin, associate professor of economics, only had one name growing up in India. He was just Mohsin.

When he applied for a passport, the Indian Passport officer said they needed more than one name for his paperwork, so he added Mohammed on the spot. Now he has two first names.

It was just one step along his journey.

“I’ve been moving my whole life,” he said.

It was exciting, he said, to grow up in a small village and not know where life might lead him. His father helped him pursue his education, but it wasn’t always easy. He had to walk three miles every day to get to his high school.

As for studying economics?

“That happened by accident,” he said. He was interested in math, but friends told him economics had more practical applications. “At that time I had no idea about economics in a real-life sense. Now I am happy that I studied economics. I can do both.”

He initially studied at the University of Hyderabad in India. He then received a scholarship from the Commonwealth Scholarship from the Canadian government to go to York University in Toronto, where he earned his doctorate.

“Mohammed Mohsin makes for a great story,” said Jan Williams, dean of the College of Business Administration. “He grew up in India and, unlike most of us, experienced both extreme inflation and extreme deflation. This almost certainly influenced his interest in how inflation affects the functioning of an economy, and he is becoming an expert in this topic. He has published more than 20 articles in books and journals since joining our faculty.”

Mohsin has been at UT for twelve years. He teaches and researches international economics, macroeconomics, and monetary economics.

What he teaches is technical, and it’s easy for students to get confused, he said. He does classroom exercises to help them understand the concepts and assigns papers and projects to keep them engaged.

On the weekends, he lives in Asheville, North Carolina. He’s been an American citizen for several years, and his son was born in the United States.

“My son can’t imagine living anywhere besides Asheville,” he said.

Andy Puckett

Andy Puckett, associate professor of finance, knew he wanted to work at UT as soon as he visited campus for an interview.

“I fell in love with it from the very beginning,” he said, noting that he was particularly drawn to his peers in the Department of Finance. “We’ve got a great group here.”

Puckett was inspired to teach finance years earlier by one of his graduate school professors at the University of Georgia, Marc Lipson.

Lipson is a leading researcher in financial investing and had worked at the New York Stock Exchange. He worked closely with Puckett, and now the two conduct research together and co-author papers.

“That’s where my passion for investments-related research developed,” Puckett said.

Right now, he’s working with a different group of professors from three other schools on a paper about how large institutional investors traded during the 2008 market crisis. It will be published in the Journal of Financial Economics later this year.

“Andy Puckett is a rising star in the Department of Finance,” Williams said. “He was involved in thirty-six presentations during the past several years, and his research is published in the most prestigious journals. Add to this, Andy is exceptional in the classroom,” Williams said.

Although he spends a lot of time on research, he tries to develop a personal relationship with each of his students.

“I try to learn everyone’s name the first week,” he said.

He gives incentives for participation to help foster “organic conversation” in class, which he says “leads to a higher level of learning.”

He teaches undergraduate and doctoral courses in investments and a new undergraduate course he developed called Debt and Derivatives.

Outside of work, he and his wife Megan have two children who keep them active. He’s involved with a men’s group at his church and often goes running.

At UT, it’s his students who keep him motivated. “I get to be around energetic young men and women,” he said. “It’s the greatest job in the world.”

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C O N T A C T :

Holly Gary (865-974-2225, hgary@utk.edu)

Amy Blakey (865-974-5034, ablakely@utk.edu)

August E. “Augie” Grant, the J. Rion McKissick Professor of Journalism at the University of South Carolina, will deliver the keynote address. He will speak on “Convergence and Disruption: The New Research Paradigms.”

The symposium will be held in the Communications Building Auditorium (Room 321), with the poster session located in the foyer outside the auditorium. A lunch will be held in the Scripps Convergence Lab (Communications Building Room 402). Tickets to the lunch are $10. All other events during the symposium are free and open to the public.

“The theme of this year’s symposium highlights the changes that are leading to the transformation and convergence of the fields of communication and information,” said CCI Dean Mike Wirth.

“Our keynoter, Augie Grant, is an internationally known expert on media convergence and technology. His talk will set the tone for what promises to be an exciting day of paper presentations, posters, and discourse,” Wirth said.

The symposium begins at 9:00 a.m. with a continental breakfast in the CCI lobby, followed by Grant’s keynote address at 9:30 a.m.

Research paper presentations will begin at 10:30 a.m. in the auditorium on the topic of “New Roles for Media in Society,” and the poster session begins at 11:30 a.m. in the lobby.

Lunch begins at 12:15 p.m. in the Scripps Convergence Lab. The next paper presentation session begins at 1:45 p.m. in the auditorium on the topic of “Media’s Role in Society.”

The final paper presentation session begins at 2:45 p.m. in the auditorium on the topic of “Science Communication,” and the closing comments and awards ceremony are set for 3:30 p.m. Awards will be given to the best paper by undergraduate students, the best paper by master’s students, the best collaborative paper by faculty and doctoral students, and the best poster.

For more information about the symposium program, call 865-974-6651 or visit the symposium website.

CONTACT:

Charles Primm (865-974-5180, charles.primm@tennessee.edu)

John O. Hodges teaching a class.

Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta by sharecroppers, John O. Hodges was expected to work in the fields alongside his parents once he was old enough. His stepfather had different plans.

Bargaining with the landowner, Hodges’s stepfather said he would do twice the work if Hodges could go to school. The landowner reluctantly agreed and thus began Hodges’s long education, which resulted in a doctorate in religion and literature from the University of Chicago in 1980.

“My stepfather often drank too much and was sometimes abusive, but I owe the start of my education to him, and I will be forever grateful for that,” said Hodges, associate professor emeritus of the Department of Religious Studies.

This is just one of the stories Hodges recounts in his new book, Delta Fragments: The Recollections of a Sharecropper’s Son.

The book, which will be released in June 2013 by The University of Tennessee Press, highlights moments of Hodges’s time in the Mississippi Delta and explores these moments in the context of greater themes such as the civil rights movement and religion in the African-American community.

Racism was prevalent in the Mississippi Delta during Hodges’ grade school years, and one of the most memorable moments, he said, was the brutal murder of Emmett Till in 1955. Till was a fourteen-year-old African-American who was beaten, shot, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River after reportedly flirting with a white woman.

Hodges was a young man in the segregated school system when the murder happened, and he recalled the event sparking widespread distress among the Delta’s African-American community.

“We would walk around with our heads down, so no one could even think that we were making a pass at a white woman,” Hodges said.

Although his young adult life was haunted by racism, Hodges insists his time in the Mississippi Delta was not all about struggle. There were happy moments, too. He recalled dancing to great music in juke joints, playing sports, and staying out with friends on a Saturday night—getting back just in time for a few hours of sleep before Sunday church.

Hodges was an associate professor of religious studies who taught at UT for twenty-three years. During his time at UT, he served as the chair of African and African-American Studies from 1997 to 2002 and portrayed Delbert Tibbs in UT’s production of the award-winning play The Exonerated as a benefit for the university’s chapter of Amnesty International.

Hodges is continuing his research about the Mississippi Delta and is currently gathering information about the namesake of his hometown of Greenwood, Mississippi. He is an avid Tennessee sports enthusiast and is married to Carolyn Hodges, dean of the Graduate School.

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C O N T A C T :

Christine Copelan (ccopela7@utk.edu)

You can post your own shout-out to your favorite faculty member on the Faculty Shout Out Page.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B24fEYVWwo

The Knoxville chapter of the American Advertising Federation awarded UT a Gold Addy for a recently completed video that will be used as part of a revamped campus tour presentation for prospective students visiting UT. The Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) awarded UT a total of twelve awards at its District III conference for some of the many videos, publications, and awareness campaigns conducted in 2012.

CASE supports educational and professional institutions by enhancing communications, marketing, fund raising, and alumni relations among its members.

The Addy awards were given out February 16 and the CASE awards were announced at the organization’s regional conference February 19 in Atlanta, Georgia.

More than 1,000 entries were submitted to the CASE district conference, and only fifty-five grand prizes were awarded. More than 3,500 higher education institutions and professional organizations are members of CASE Division III, which covers the southeastern United States and includes some of the top schools in the nation.

UT received the following CASE awards:

Grand Prize: “Big Orange. Big Ideas,” the University of Tennessee brand book, a publication that explains the details of implementing and using UT’s brand identity in printed and electronic publications.

Award of Excellence: the university’s Welcome Week 2012 website; the 2011 Chancellor’s Report; and the University of Tennessee branding campaign.

Special Merit: the “Big Orange. Big Ideas.” television halftime spot; the Spring 2012 Commencement social media strategy; the Science Alliance 2012 annual report; the 2012 Accolades magazine for the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences; the Cone Zone campus construction website and signage project; the branding campaign launch; the “What’s Your Big Idea?” video series; and posters for the 2012 Fall Festival.

CONTACT:

Charles Primm (865-974-5180, primmc@utk.edu)