Donde Plowman Named Chancellor of the University of Tennessee

Donde Plowman has been named chancellor of the flagship campus of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. The university enrolls more than 22,000 undergraduate students and more than 6,000 graduate students according to the latest data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up half of the undergraduate student body.

Currently Dr. Plowman serves as executive vice chancellor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She first joined the faculty there in 2010 as the James Jr. and Susan Stuart Dean of the College of Business. Under her leadership, the college experienced steady growth and constructed the Howard L. Hawks Hall, a privately funded, $84 million facility. In 2016, Dr. Plowman was appointed the university’s inaugural executive vice chancellor. In this position she serves as the university’s intellectual and academic leader, overseeing academic enterprise and student services.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Plowman served as a professor of management at the University of Tennessee and was head of the university’s management department from 2008 to 2010. She has also served as associate dean of graduate studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio.

“I am thrilled and deeply humbled to be selected as the next chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville,” Dr. Plowman said. “My years in Nebraska and my leadership roles here have been the greatest honor of my life. To have served as the dean of the College of Business and then as executive vice chancellor with Chancellor Ronnie Green and so many other exceptional people are experiences I will cherish forever.”

Dr. Plowman is a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she majored in English. She holds a master’s degree in higher education administration from the University of North Texas and a doctorate in strategic management from the University of Texas.