“Lean in and act like you belong.” Tennessee Tech board chair talks breaking barriers for women leaders
Chair Trudy Harper speaks at a recent meeting of the Tennessee Tech Board of Trustees.
When the Tennessee Tech University Board of Trustees met for its quarterly meeting
in early March, Board Chair Trudy Harper was in her usual spot at the center of the
dais.
The two-time Tech graduate, philanthropist and titan of the energy industry became
the first woman to serve as board chair in 2019, but she has been breaking barriers
for women in business and higher education for many years earlier.
Before retiring from her position as president of Tenaska Power Services Co., a subsidiary
of Tenaska – one of the largest privately held companies in the country – Harper got
her start in the energy industry at Texas Utilities Electric Company in the 1980s,
when workplaces often looked very different for women.
“I certainly couldn't help but notice in the beginning of my career that I was a little
unusual, but I tried not to ever focus on that,” said Harper during an interview last fall on Tech’s “College Town Talk” podcast.
Harper, who served as an adjunct instructor at Tech for nearly a decade, added, “I
used to tell my students, ‘If you look different from all the people that run your
company, don’t make a big deal about that. Just lean in and act like you belong there.’
That’s what I’ve tried to do.”
But Harper did more than belong – she thrived. For her ascendancy to the top ranks
of the energy sector, she earned the Tennessee Tech College of Engineering’s 2016
Outstanding Alumni Award and 2014 Engineer of Distinction Award.
When then-Gov. Bill Haslam and the Tennessee General Assembly enacted legislation
creating an independent board of trustees for Tech in 2016, he knew just the woman
for a spot on the elite panel.
Harper’s confirmation to the board sailed through the state legislature without opposition
the following year, and again in 2023 when she was reappointed by Gov. Bill Lee for
another term.
Chair Trudy Harper smiles at a September 2023 Board of Trustees meeting.
Today, Harper says she is heartened by the number of women that Tech has elevated
to leadership positions alongside her.
“Our provost [Lori Mann Bruce] is a woman, who’s also an electrical engineer, by the
way … Our CFO [Claire Stinson] is a woman and many in the president’s cabinet are
women. We’ve got women deans and chairs. I’m just so honored to serve alongside these
folks,” added Harper. “My vice chair is Rhedona Rose who is an important woman in
the state of Tennessee and in Farm Bureau. So, I’m very thankful.”
One area where Harper sees room for improvement? The number of women who study and
find employment in STEM fields – where they still make up only slightly more than
a quarter of the workforce.
“I do think we still need a lot more women in STEM,” said Harper. “Personally, I created
a scholarship for women in electrical and computer engineering or mechanical engineering.
Hopefully, that will encourage some of the brightest and best to come to Tennessee
Tech.”
Harper’s generous support of Tech and its students doesn’t stop there. In 2024, she
also surprised longtime friend Gary Durham with a gift to rename Tech’s soon-to-be-rebuilt foundry
in his honor.
Harper was inspired by how Durham persevered through a lifetime of visual impairment.
While Durham had studied at Tech, he did not have an opportunity to complete his degree.
With her donation to rename the facility, Harper said she wanted to remind her friend
that “he’s as much of a Golden Eagle as anyone.”
“When you're blessed with some economic success, you have some choices to make. What
are you going to do with your treasures?” explained Harper. “For me, Tennessee Tech
has been one of the major focuses of my philanthropic giving because I believe strongly
in the opportunity for young people to have education – and an affordable education
and a good education at that.”
Tech President Phil Oldham praised Harper’s generosity and commitment to Tech students.
“Trudy is the best of us in so many ways,” said Oldham. “The steady, thoughtful leadership
she provides as board chair is invaluable. More than that, she is a friend to me and
a role model to our students. Every part of this campus is marked with the imprint
of Trudy’s example.”
And while Harper has given much to the university, she says she has received even
more in return.
“I got so much technical skill, leadership opportunity, education and exposure to
the world,” she concluded. “By far, the biggest impact to me was the people that I
got to meet and love there – both faculty, who I'm still very much in touch with and
think of like family, and then the people that truly are my family of choice: my college
friends who were roommates of mine.”
Harper resides in Soddy-Daisy, Tenn. with her husband, Roger Knipp. Her term on the
Tennessee Tech Board of Trustees concludes in 2028.