Earlier today, Governor Bill Haslam announced his appointments to the inaugural Tennessee Tech University Board of Trustees. We are all indebted to Governor Haslam for his leadership and personal investment of time to seat such an impressive group of outstanding individuals. The eight appointments announced today are:

  • Dr. Barbara Fleming, senior health policy analyst and former physician at Walter Reed Army Medical Center;
  • Trudy Harper, founder and former president of Tenaska Power Services Company;
  • Tom Jones, co-owner and general manager of Research Electronics International;
  • Millard Oakley, former member of the Tennessee General Assembly and current board member of First National Bank of Tennessee;
  • Purna Saggurti, global chair of investment banking for Bank of America Merrill Lynch;
  • Johnny Stites, managing partner of XI Investments;
  • Teresa Vanhooser, former deputy director of the Marshall Space Flight Center and current senior consultant with Seabrook Solutions, LLC; and
  • Capt. Barry Wilmore, National Aeronautics and Space Administration astronaut.

Please see https://www.tntech.edu/board/members for complete biographical information on each board member.

These eight individuals are subject to confirmation by the Tennessee General Assembly during the 2017 legislative session prior to taking on any official duties. They will be joined on the newly established board by a faculty member selected by the TTU Faculty Senate and a student selected by the board once it has been officially empowered. We currently anticipate the new board to hold its first official meeting sometime in April 2017.

Please join me in offering our congratulations to these board appointees along with our collective gratitude for their willingness to devote their time and talents to join us in making Tennessee Tech the premier technological university that we aspire to become.

The news release from the governor’s office can be found at https://www.tn.gov/governor/news.

Go Eagles!

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