Tennessee Tech Board of Trustees welcomes new members, elects Rhedona Rose as chair at quarterly meeting
Rhedona Rose is pictured at the university's Sept. 25 Board of Trustees meeting. A
1984 Tech graduate and member of the Board of Trustees since 2018, Rose was elected
to serve as board chair for the next two years.
The Board of Trustees at Tennessee Tech University welcomed four new members and elected new leadership for the next two years at its quarterly meeting on Sept. 25.
Trustees elected Rhedona Rose as board chair for the term ending June 30, 2027. A 1984 Tech graduate, Rose is known today as one of Tennessee’s foremost agricultural leaders. She was first appointed to the board in 2018 and recently retired from her role as executive vice president of Tennessee Farm Bureau after 37 years of dedicated service.
“Tennessee Tech has held a special place in my life since I arrived on this campus as a freshman agriculture major more than 40 years ago. It is not just my alma mater, it is home,” said Chair Rose. “It has been an honor to sit on this board for the last seven years and have a front row seat as Tennessee Tech has reached new levels of success. I am humbled by my board colleagues’ trust and look forward to the important work ahead.”
Rose succeeds immediate past chair Trudy Harper, who was first elected chair in 2019 and will remain a member of the board’s executive committee. Tech President Phil Oldham presented Harper with a commemorative gavel to honor her service on the board and praised her “phenomenal” leadership.
“You have made us a better institution, and we’re all deeply appreciative,” said Oldham.
Likewise, Rose praised Harper as a “cheerleader for women” and “living proof that success is measured not just by your achievements, but how many people you bring along with you.”
Trustee Trudy Harper shares a hug with Tech President Phil Oldham after Harper passed
the gavel as board chair.
Trustees also elected Fred Lowery as vice chair of the board. A trustee since 2019,
Lowery is a 1994 Tech graduate serving today as executive vice president and president
of laboratory products and bioproduction at Thermo Fisher Scientific. He is additionally
the 2021 recipient of the university’s Distinguished Alumnus Award.
Tom Jones was elected chair of the board’s Audit & Business Committee, while Cameron Rudd was elected chair of the board’s Academic & Student Affairs Committee.
Along with the change in leadership, the quarterly meeting marked the first time on the dais for four new members.
New trustees include Garry McNabb, a 1979 Tech graduate and local real estate investor and entrepreneur serving as CEO of Cash Express, LLC, and Teresa Chasteen Dunn, a longtime educator, philanthropist and business leader serving as president and CEO of WIN Learning.
Joining them on the board are faculty representative Michael Allen, a three-time Tech graduate and current professor and chair of the university’s Department of Mathematics, and Braxton Westbrook, a current Tech graduate student serving as the board’s nonvoting student trustee and expecting to graduate with a master’s degree in computer science next year.
New members of the Board of Trustees are pictured. Clockwise from left: Garry McNabb,
Teresa Chasteen Dunn, Michael Allen (faculty representative) and Braxton Westbrook
(student trustee).
Following leadership elections, trustees approved a new academic program, unanimously
greenlighting a proposed Master of Science in Industrial & Systems Engineering.
According to a background document prepared by the university, “industrial engineering has become one of the fastest growing engineering disciplines nationally, serving manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and government.”
Faculty Trustee Michael Allen expressed strong support for the program, noting that it holds potential to attract students across a broad range of studies.
“This program is applicable not just to engineering … but anywhere something is made,” said Allen. “I think we’re going to see more than just engineers go into this master’s program. You’re going to see students from all disciplines.”
Industry leaders, including FedEx, Nissan North America, ATC Automation, Tenneco and
others, provided letters of support for the proposed degree program.
In other board news:
- President’s report: Tech President Phil Oldham updated trustees on the university’s latest third-party
rankings, including the newly released 2026 “best national universities” list from
U.S. News & World Report, which shows that Tech climbed 31 spots over last year’s finish to tie for a place
among the top two public universities in Tennessee. Oldham additionally cited recent
rankings from SmartAsset, Payscale, Money.com and the Beacon Center of Tennessee,
among others, each highlighting Tech’s strong value and academic performance.
Oldham went on to discuss the importance of a vibrant campus culture to the university’s student recruitment and retention efforts, touting recent initiatives like “College Town Weekends,” which offers events and programming to engage students over the weekend, and “Wings Up Wednesdays on the WestSide” which provides a free shuttle service for students every Wednesday evening to the university’s WestSide local shopping and dining hub, where many local businesses offer special discounts to Tech students. - Enrollment update: Karen Lykins, vice president for enrollment and communication, briefed trustees on
the university’s fall 2025 census numbers, which showed that enrollment grew for the
fourth consecutive year, reaching 10,701 students, including more than 3,000 new students.
Lykins also provided a profile of the new freshman class, noting that students represent 89 of Tennessee’s 95 counties, as well as 17 other countries, with ages ranging from 16 to 35. She explained that the university’s freshman retention rate swelled to 80.1%, the highest on record, and discussed strategies to build on those gains.
Finally, Lykins discussed the current recruitment cycle for fall 2026 and previewed upcoming recruitment events, including the university’s “Tech to You” event series, in which university leaders travel to hometowns across the state to bring Tech’s message directly to prospective students in the communities where they live. - Provost’s report: John Liu, interim provost, discussed Tech’s key indicators of academic excellence,
touting a 15% increase in the university’s four-year graduation rate over the last
eight years and the university’s recent designation as a “higher earnings” institution
by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education and the American
Council of Education.
Later in his report, Liu introduced Mike Gotcher, dean of the university’s newly renamed College of Emerging and Integrative Studies, who briefed trustees on the college’s focus areas of enrollment, retention, cost and relevancy.
Gotcher highlighted the college’s new B.S. in interdisciplinary computing, industry partnerships – including a planned collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Roane State Community College for a four-year degree with an emphasis area in project management – and renewed focus on alleviating student textbook costs using open educational resource (OER) alternatives. - Student Affairs update: Marc Burnett, interim vice president for Student Affairs, shared an update on student
life, noting that more than 2,500 students now live on campus across the university’s
residence halls and Tech Village apartment-style housing.
Burnett also discussed the recent Week of Welcome, held at the start of each fall semester for new and returning students. Student Affairs organized 61 events across campus during this timeframe, culminating in the university’s “College Town Kickoff” block party and concert with Grammy-nominated hip hop artist Flo Rida, which drew an estimated 8,000+ attendees. - Proposed land acquisition: Claire Stinson, senior vice president for planning and finance, presented to trustees
a proposed amendment to the university’s master plan to pursue the acquisition of
505 East 15th Street, a property three blocks from the northeast corner of campus
with a soon-to-be-complete office building that could serve as a new home for university
facilities personnel.
President Oldham noted that the current facilities offices on the west end of campus have become a prime area of campus real estate that is planned to be redeveloped as sorority housing, which campus leaders believe will enhance student recruitment and retention. - Recognition of students: Trustees celebrated the fifth year of Tech Trailblazers – a program to reimagine and
personalize Tennessee Tech University’s approach to campus visits through one-on-one
campus tours from current students – by hearing from three Trailblazers: Audrey Perry,
a civil engineering major for Shelbyville, Cailey Martin, a political science and
legal studies major from Lenoir City and Jimmy Guadalupe, a business information technology
and business management major from Cookeville.
Later, trustees received remarks from Jackson Ragland, a Tech student and Cookeville native, double-majoring in chemical engineering and Spanish. Ragland shared his experiences traveling abroad on a recent trip to Valencia, Spain, through the university’s Center for Global Experiences.
From left: Tech students Audrey Perry, Jimmy Guadalupe and Cailey Martin share about
the impact of Tech's Trailblazer program on student recruitment.
Materials from today’s meeting and video of the full board meeting will be available
at the board’s website, www.tntech.edu/board.
The board’s next meeting is scheduled for December 4, 2025.