Donde Plowman has served since 2019 as the ninth chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the state’s flagship land-grant research university. In that time, the university has set new records in student retention and graduation, research, instructional spending, alumni giving, and state support.

UT has a footprint that spans the entire state, including the main campus in Knoxville, the Space Institute in Tullahoma, and the Institute of Agriculture and its Extension offices in all 95 counties. Plowman oversees a campus budget of $2.3 billion as well as more than 40,000 students, 8,300 staff, and 2,500 full-time faculty.

Shortly after her arrival at UT, Plowman created the Division of Student Success to ensure that students receive a wide range of individualized support as they navigate college life. Since then, the university has seen significant results in retention, persistence, and graduation rates. Student retention has improved 6 points to a record 92.4 percent, and four-year graduation rates have jumped 10 points to 66.8 percent.

This improved retention, combined with a boom in new student applications, has allowed the university to strategically grow its enrollment by more than 35 percent, while the number of graduates produced each year has grown by 40 percent to an all-time high of 9,500 in 2025. These record successes are creating more opportunities for more students and producing more skilled graduates ready to enter the workforce.

Under Plowman’s leadership, the university has increased its research expenditures to a record $384 million by shifting its focus from individual efforts to big collaborative projects. This change in emphasis has fueled creative solutions and new technologies as well as expanded innovation and economic development partnerships with key research partners like Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Y-12 National Security Complex, Volkswagen, Eastman Chemical, AT&T and more.

At the same time, UT has seen unprecedented growth with its annual fundraising tripling, and the completion of more than $1.23 billion in campus construction projects since 2020. Another $1.6 billion in campus improvement projects are in the planning, design, or construction phases, including a new business building, chemistry building and student success building.

Plowman’s role as chancellor also includes oversight of Tennessee Athletics. Under her leadership, which included the hire of a new athletics director in 2020, the department has increased its revenue by more than 60 percent, helping improve fan experience and boost competitive excellence—including the baseball program’s first national championship in 2024.

Among her peers, Plowman is recognized as a leader. She currently serves on the executive committee of the Association of Public & Land-grant Universities Board of Directors and as president of the Southeastern Conferences’ Executive Committee. She previously served a three-year term on the NCAA’s Presidential Forum.

Before becoming chancellor, she served as dean of the College of Business and then executive vice chancellor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. She was previously a department head at UT. Plowman is a globally recognized organizational scientist whose scholarship includes the topics of leadership, change management, and strategic decision-making.