Donde Plowman

Donde Plowman became the ninth chancellor of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, on July 1, 2019. Under her leadership, the university has placed renewed focus on its land-grant mission as the state’s flagship public institution.

Since her arrival, Plowman has overseen the creation of the UT Oak Ridge Innovation Institute, the reunification of the Knoxville campus with the Institute of Agriculture, and the launch of a new strategic visioning process. She had been in the role for just eight months when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, forcing the university to mount an unprecedented response to keep the campus community healthy and keep students on track to graduate.

Under her leadership the university acted quickly to respond to the crisis, moving all courses to remote learning, calling all current and incoming students to make sure they had the support they needed, and commissioning a task force to make recommendations for how to safely move forward in the following academic year. Through the crisis, the university continued to grow its enrollment, increased its retention rates, and celebrated spring commencement in Neyland Stadium for the first time.

Before arriving at UT, Plowman spent nine years at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she served most recently as executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer. In that role, she oversaw academic affairs, student affairs, the Office of Research and Economic Development, and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. She earlier served for more than six years as the James Jr. and Susan Stuart Dean of UNL’s College of Business Administration.

Before going to Nebraska, Plowman was on the management faculty at UT, where she served for two years as head of the Department of Management in the Haslam College of Business. She began her academic career at the University of Texas at San Antonio as an assistant professor of management and advanced to the position of professor and associate dean for graduate studies and research, where she was responsible for the creation of the university’s doctoral degree in business.

Plowman has a doctorate in strategic management from the University of Texas at Austin, an undergraduate degree with a major in English from Southern Methodist University, and an MEd in higher education administration from the University of North Texas.

She is married to Dennis Duchon, a UNL professor emeritus and former chair of the Department of Management at UNL. They have two grown sons.