Accuracy of UT administrator's resume is under review

The Associated Press

KNOXVILLE -- The resume of a fast-rising University of Tennessee administrator has come under scrutiny amid questions about whether it is inflated.

Pamela S. Reed, executive director of a soon-to-open UT Center for Law, Medicine and Technology, which she proposed, has a history of embellishing her credentials, The Knoxville News-Sentinel reported Friday.

"It's something somebody should have reviewed at some point," UT President J. Wade Gilley said when questioned by the newspaper.

Gilley and Eli Fly, executive vice president, said a review of Reed's personnel record would begin after consulting university lawyers.

"We'll take the appropriate action," Fly said, without elaborating.

Reed, 44, was hired as an assistant director at UT's Health Science Center in Memphis in May 2000 after a nine-month stint with state government. Today she is earning $67,300 and in line to run the new law, medicine and technology center due to open July 1.

Her rise at the university comes at a time when UT is touting a streamlined administration and a major campaign to enhance the reputation of its programs, particularly in the sciences.

Reed declined repeated requests for an interview, the newspaper said. But her attorney, John Konvolinka of Chattanooga, said Thursday, " ... the information contained in my client's resume and/or curriculum vitae is correct."

The newspaper said her resume claims she was a flight attendant for 10 years for Delta Air Lines, though a lawsuit said she never left the ground as a sales agent. It says she was once a "legislative assistant" to U.S. Rep. John Duncan Jr., R-Tenn., though his office said she was actually an unpaid intern. And it says she was a "law clerk" to District Attorney Al Schmutzer in Sevierville, though Schmutzer said she was an unpaid intern there as well.

During part of her time with the state, Reed worked as an attorney at the Tennessee Department of Mental Health. But Reed, who received a law degree from UT in 1998 and passed the bar exam the next year, was not licensed to practice.

"That makes me sick to my stomach," said former boss Nora Cannon, chief legal counsel at the Department of Mental Health.

A few months after being hired by UT, she moved to Knoxville to become special assistant to Dwayne McCay, vice president for research and information technology. Her job was to seek federal grants.

Reed had business cards printed listing her as an "assistant vice president," based on the recommendation of a consultant who said a grants officer needs to have "at least the appearance of clout." She was later told to stop using the cards because the position was not authorized.

"That was out of ignorance," McCay said, "ignorance and zeal."

Although McCay praised her as "enthusiastic," Gilley said he advised her in January to stop using his name "inaccurately and inappropriately" when she was trying to accomplish certain tasks.

Given the new information about Reed's background, McCay said, "One would have to give some reconsideration (to her new posting)."