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Provost Susan Martin Announces Her Return to the Faculty

Provost and Senior Vice Chancellor Susan Martin has announced that she will return to her faculty position in the Department of Classics on August 1.

Martin has worked for UT for more than thirty-five years and has served as UT Knoxville’s chief academic officer since 2009.

“I am sad and we will miss her greatly on my team, but I know that UT is in a much better place because of her superb leadership,” said Chancellor Jimmy G. Cheek. “I credit her leadership and her vision for so many of the transformational changes we’ve been able to make in recruiting, supporting, retaining, and graduating our students.”

A national search to fill the position will begin soon.

Cheek said Martin helped to hire nearly all of UT’s current college deans and has recruited many world-renowned scholars to the UT faculty. Her leadership has helped UT make more strategic data-driven decisions that have led to better service for students and greater support for faculty and academic programs.

Martin oversaw the development of the Vol Vision strategic plan as well as UT’s reaccreditation and subsequent development of the new Experience Learning initiative. She also led large-scale improvements to student advising and academic support services and the creation of the One Stop Student Services Center, the Tennessee Teaching and Learning Center, and UT Service-Learning.

Martin said, “I will be forever grateful to Chancellor Cheek for the opportunities he has afforded me to move the university forward. Our strong partnership has resulted in many successes as we have worked to strengthen academics at UT.”

In 2014, the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities honored UT with its Trailblazer award for the university’s big steps to improve graduation and retention rates. The association noted UT’s innovative approaches that can be modeled and replicated by other universities.

Martin said she is grateful to have worked with many talented professionals who helped improve the undergraduate and graduate student experience.

“I look forward to returning to my starting point at UT, the Department of Classics, to re-establish the connection with teaching and research that I have really missed,” she said.

Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Martin joined the faculty in 1981. A scholar of Roman law of the classical period, she has two bachelor’s degrees from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s and doctorate from the University of Michigan.