Leadership Team

Tyvi Small
Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Engagement

Meet the Vice Chancellor

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Katrice Morgan

Interim Associate Vice Chancellor and Interim Director of Equity and Diversity
Email
865-974-2498

Katrice W. Jones Morgan currently serves as interim associate vice chancellor for diversity and engagement and interim director of the Office of Equity and Diversity. Before joining the Office of Equity and Diversity in March 2019, she was the assistant dean for student affairs and director of diversity and inclusion for UT’s College of Law for 13 years. Morgan also served as an assistant district attorney general for Knox County for six years. Her professional career in higher education began as an assistant director of Arts and Sciences Advising Services.

Morgan holds a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of Tennessee and a juris doctorate from Loyola University New Orleans.

She serves as the lead graduate advisor for the Zeta Delta Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority at UT. She is the immediate past president of Alpha Pi Omega, Knoxville’s graduate chapter, and a member of Alpha Pi Omega Foundation.

Morgan enjoys celebrating her New Orleans heritage, spending time with family and friends, cooking, and escaping into a good book.

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Javiette Samuel
Assistant Vice Chancellor and Director of Community Engagement and Outreach
Email
865-974-4863

Javiette Samuel is the assistant vice chancellor for diversity and engagement, director of community engagement and outreach, and an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Child and Family Studies. She is an experienced engaged scholar with a unique combination of educational, interpersonal, and creative skills. She has worked with P-20 students, families, and underrepresented communities for nearly 25 years, focusing on engagement, outreach, and evidence-based programs.

Samuel cultivates relationships with national, state, and regional partners, works with units across campus to connect UT’s knowledge with the community in mutually beneficial ways, identifies and tackles complex issues to help improve the well-being of our state’s citizens, and partners with units across campus on initiatives that ensure access and are designed to address recruitment and retention of underrepresented students, faculty, and staff. Her primary applied research focus has been on child development, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), positive youth development, parenting, and family well-being. She is especially passionate about addressing educational disparities, early warning signs of disengagement from school and learning, mentoring, and increasing parental involvement.

Samuel has served as a faculty member and extension administrator at the University of Kentucky, Kentucky State University, and Tennessee State University. A three-time UT alumna, Samuel earned her bachelor’s in 1996, master’s in 1999, and doctorate in 2002. She is an active member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated and a member of the Alpha Pi Omega Foundation. Samuel serves on various boards and is a member of the Leadership Knoxville Class of 2021. She enjoys reading, writing poetry, outdoor adventures, and spending quality time with her beautiful granddaughters.

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Janelle Coleman
Executive Director for Diversity and Engagement
Email
865-974-3714

Janelle Coleman is currently the executive director for diversity and engagement at UT. In this role, she acts as a consultant to senior administrators and department leaders to support diversity, inclusion and engagement efforts in their areas. She assists in the development and implementation of goals and objectives for the Division of Diversity and Engagement in alignment with institutional goals, and partners with the Office of Institutional Research to prepare analysis of data and other evidence related to the progress of the institution in diversity, engagement, and inclusion. She also serves as liaison between the division and the chancellor’s commissions and the Council for Diversity and Inclusion.

Coleman has a PhD in Hispanic language and literature, an MS in teacher education, and BA in creative writing and Spanish, all from UT. Her research interests include Hispanophone Caribbean history and cultures, Luso-Brazilian history and cultures, US Latinx and African Diaspora studies, culturally responsive pedagogy, inclusive teaching, and assessment in higher education. She previously served as the faculty consultant for assessment and inclusive teaching in UT’s Teaching and Learning Innovation department. In this role, she led the department’s inclusive teaching initiatives and coordinated Diversi-Tea, a program that facilitates ongoing dialogue related to issues in diversity and inclusion in pedagogy. She also served as chair and founder of UT’s Inclusive Teaching Task Force and a member of university’s Assessment Steering Committee.

Coleman is currently pursuing a graduate certificate in the Evaluation, Statistics, and Measurement program here at UT. When she is not studying or working, she enjoys traveling around the world, learning about other cultures, reading fiction, and participating in activities with the UT Graduate Student–Faculty Chapter of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship.

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Division Administrative Staff

Beth Huemmer
Assistant to the Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Engagement

Kortney Powell
Assistant to the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Engagement and Director of Community Engagement and Outreach

Melanie Finnegan
Business Manager

2020-21 Faculty Fellows

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