On a sunny fall afternoon at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, two second-year students are instantly excited when they realize it’s the school’s new chancellor, Lori Mann Bruce, who just walked up to their table.
The pair are roommates, they tell her — childhood best friends from Memphis who are both East African refugees. One of them shares that being in a new environment their first year was a big adjustment, but the university treated them well, so they came back. In turn, Bruce shares with them stories about her own difficulties during her freshman year.
She asks them to wave at her if they see her on campus, and the pair assure her they will. As she walks away, Bruce reflects on how each student she meets brings a unique story and perspective.
Bruce, who took the helm of the UTC in late June, never thought she’d be anything other than a professor when she entered academia. There was no master plan, she says. It was a natural progression.
“I just was doing the very best I could at whatever job I was in,” she says. “I was just blessed that other people maybe recognized something in me I didn’t even recognize in myself, and then gave me opportunities to step up and lead at higher levels.”