With the official arrival of spring, I recently took some time to do some spring cleaning in my Knoxville office. While going through some old notebooks, I ran across a comment that I jotted down during a meeting a few years ago with the late David Millhorn, former UT senior vice president emeritus, who passed away in 2017. He said, “In Tennessee, we’re not braggers. We are doers. We’re always better than we say.”
He was right. Even as it applies to our employees across the University of Tennessee system, we are major “doers,” and few people truly understand just how exceptional UT faculty and staff really are.
In this issue of For Your Benefit, you will get a chance to read more about five of your UT colleagues who are an incredible example of those who devote themselves to the mission of UT every day, while letting their work speak for itself. And while we are not braggers by nature, I’m thrilled that we took the opportunity to recognize these employees as 2019 President’s Awards winners for their outstanding contributions to UT. After checking out this newsletter, I encourage you to read more about them on the tennessee.edu President’s Office Web page. I’m confident that it will make you proud to be a part of the University of Tennessee team.
Additionally, to learn more exciting things to brag about (if you wanted to), check out the archived webcast of UT interim President Randy Boyd’s first State of the University Address on the tennessee.edu/state-of-ut web page. You’ll find out for yourself that we truly are even better than we say.
Tonja Johnson, Ph.D.
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
