Tom GriscomNASHVILLE - Gov. Bill Haslam today announced the appointments of Donald Lee Gatts III and Linda S. Weeks to the Tennessee Board of Regents as well as the reappointment of Tom Griscom to the panel.
Gatts, a Tennessee Tech student from Algood, Tenn., will serve as the student regent. He is a pre-law student majoring in political science at the Cookeville university and serves as president of the Student Government Association.
Weeks will serve as the faculty regent. She is an associate professor of English at Dyersburg State Community College. She serves as a member of the TBR system-wide Student Rules Committee, and as chairperson of the Teaching-Learning Technology Roundtable.
Griscom represents the 3rd Congressional District on the board. He recently served as communications consultant to the Haslam administration. He served 11 years as executive editor and publisher of the Chattanooga Times Free Press newspaper.
Griscom previously served as director of communications to President Ronald Reagan and press secretary to former Sen. Howard Baker Jr. He is a graduate of the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, where he also served as a faculty member.
"It is a privilege to have these three citizens serve the state of Tennessee in this capacity," Haslam said in a news release. "They possess the skills, expertise and knowledge required to help guide the system."
The 18-member Tennessee Board of Regents is the governing body of the Board of Regents system, which includes Tennessee's technology centers, community colleges and four-year public universities unaffiliated with the University of Tennessee. The board oversees the educational and operational activities of the statewide system.
The governor serves as an ex-officio voting member of the board and, by election, as chairman.