List of University of Tennessee people

The following is a list of people associated with the University of Tennessee system in all its campuses. The list does not include personnel associated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Politics and law
• Lamar Alexander, former Tennessee Governor, UT President and former US Senator

• Ali Abu Al-Ragheb, former Prime Minister of Jordan

• Victor Ashe, U.S. ambassador to Poland, former mayor of Knoxville, Tennessee

• John DeWitt Clinton Atkins, member of House of Representatives

• Richard W. Austin, member of House of Representatives

• Howard Baker, Ambassador and former Senate Majority Leader

• Howard Baker Sr., member of House of Representatives

• William M. Barker, Chief Justice to Tennessee Supreme Court

• George White Baxter, Governor of Wyoming territory

• Ray Blanton, Governor of Tennessee, member of House of Representatives

• Marion Speed Boyd, former U.S. district and Chief judge for Tennessee

• John Lafayette Camp, politician and Civil War veteran

• William H. Cate, former U.S. Congressman from Arkansas

• Brett Carter, U.S. House of Representatives candidate

• Saxby Chambliss, U.S. Senator

• Walter Chandler, former mayor of Memphis, Tennessee

• Clement Comer Clay, former Governor of Alabama

• Bob Corker, former mayor of Chattanooga; U.S. Senator

• John Hervey Crozier, member of House of Representatives

• Arthur B. Culvahouse Jr., former White House Counsel

• Lincoln Davis, member of House of Representatives

• Jim DeMint, South Carolina U.S. Senator

• M. Jerome Diamond, Vermont Attorney General, 1975–1981

• Lurita Doan, former Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration

• Jimmy Duncan, member of House of Representatives

• John Duncan Sr., member of House of Representative

• Winfield Dunn, former Governor of Tennessee

• Charlene Fite, Republican member of the Arkansas House of Representatives from Crawford County, Arkansas

• James B. Frazier, former Governor of Tennessee and U.S. Senator

• Richard Fulton, former Tennessee state senator, US Congressman, mayor of metropolitan Nashville

• Bart Gordon, member of House of Representatives

• Al Gore Jr., former Vice President of the United States, US Congressman, US Senator, professor, and environmentalist, recipient of honorary doctorate, 2010

• Albert Gore Sr., member of House of Representatives and U.S. Senator

• Bill Hendon, former member of U.S. House of Representatives

• Van Hilleary, U. S. Congressman

• John C. Houk, former member of U.S. House of Representatives

• Thomas G. Hull, former member of U.S. House of Representatives

• Amadou Scattred Janneh, former Secretary of State for Communication, Information and Technology, from The Gambia

• Ray Jenkins, Senate counsel during the Army-McCarthy Hearings

• William L. Jenkins, member of U.S. House of Representatives

• Ed Jones, former member of U.S. House of Representatives

• Jim Justice, Governor of West Virginia

• Joel A. Katz, entertainment lawyer (UT College of Law)

• Estes Kefauver, former U.S. Senator

• Arthur Larson, politician

• Guy A. Lewis, former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida

• Dan Lipinski, U.S. Congressman (D-IL) and former professor

• William Gibbs McAdoo, former United States Secretary of the Treasury

• John E. McCall, former member of U.S. House of Representatives

• Jimmy Naifeh, Speaker of the House, Tennessee House of Representatives

• John Randolph Neal Jr., Scopes Trial attorney

• Thomas Amos Rogers Nelson, former member of U.S. House of Representatives

• George W. Ochs, former Mayor of Chattanooga

• Michael C. Polt, U.S. Ambassador to Serbia

• Percy Priest, former member of U.S. House of Representatives

• Bob Ramsey (born 1947), Republican member of the Tennessee House of Representatives

• Glenn Reynolds, UT law professor and author of the Instapundit political weblog

• Mercer Reynolds, former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland

• Madeline Rogero, first female mayor of Knoxville

• Kenneth Rush, former U.S. Ambassador to Germany

• Edward Terry Sanford, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice

• Jim Sasser, former U.S. Senator

• Ronald L. Schlicher, former U.S. Ambassador to Cyprus

• Margaret Scobey, former U.S. Ambassador to Syria and Egypt

• Heath Shuler, U.S. Representative from North Carolina; former NFL player

• William P. Sims, Arizona state senator

• William Pruden Smith, former mayor, Miami

• Paul Summers, former Attorney General of State of Tennessee

• John S. Tanner, member of House of Representatives

• Deborah Tate, United States Federal Communications Commission Commissioner

• George Caldwell Taylor, former U.S. district judge

• Lawrence Tyson, former U.S. Senator

• Gary R. Wade, Tennessee Supreme Court appointee, as of 2006

• Herbert S. Walters, former U.S. Senator

• Zach Wamp, member of House of Representatives

• Allen West, U.S. Representative from Florida

• Washington C. Whitthorne, former U.S. Senator

• Laura I. Wiley, former member of the North Carolina General Assembly; current member of the University of North Carolina Board of Governors

• Paul Young, mayor of Memphis, Tennessee

Education
• Edward L. Ayers, former President of the University of Richmond

• Guy Bailey, 15th President of Texas Tech University; President of the University of Alabama

• Philander P. Claxton Sr., founder of the UT Department of Education and U.S. commissioner of education, 1911–1921

• Bob Clement, President of Cumberland University and politician

• Bryan Coker, 12th President of Maryville College

• Margaret Cuninggim, former Dean of Women at the University of Tennessee

• David L. Eubanks, former President of Johnson Bible College

• John Gaventa, political sociologist

• Lee Giles, computer scientist, CiteSeer, David Reese Professor at the Pennsylvania State University

• John Rice Irwin, historian, founder of Museum of Appalachia

• Annie Kennedy, first member of the faculty elected at the Alabama Girls' Industrial School (now, University of Montevallo)

• Joe L. Kincheloe (1950–2008), professor and Canada Research Chair at the Faculty of Education, McGill University in Montreal; founder of The Paulo and Nita Freire International Project for Critical Pedagogy; author of more than 45 books and more than one hundred journal articles on issues including critical pedagogy, educational research, urban studies, cognition, curriculum, and cultural studies

• William Allen Montgomery (1829–1905), graduated in 1850; lawyer, planter, Confederate chaplain and Baptist minister; President of Carson–Newman University from 1888 to 1892

• John Thomas Mentzer (~1951–2010), marketing and supply chain scholar

• F. Ann Millner, 11th President of Weber State University

• Velma McBride Murry, psychologist and sociologist at Vanderbilt University

• Shirley Raines, 12th President of University of Memphis

• Linwood H. Rose, 5th President of James Madison University

• Stephen Wallace Taylor, historian and chair of the Department of History and Political Science at Macon State College

• W. I. Thomas, sociologist

• Bernie L. Wade, Chancellor, International Circle of Faith Colleges and Seminaries

Actors, directors, and entertainers
• Clarence Brown, Academy Award-nominated film director

• Dixie Carter, actress

• Henry Cho, comedian

• John Cullum, actor and singer

• James Denton, actor, Desperate Housewives

• Dale Dickey, actress

• James Dobson actor

• Melanie Hutsell, comedian, actress

• David Keith, actor and director

• Logan Marshall-Green, actor, Spider-Man: Homecoming and Upgrade

• Park Overall, actress

• Constance Shulman, voice-over artist, actress

• Leanne Morgan, comedian, actress and author

Artists and musicians
• Jeff Baxter, Nike designer

• Deana Carter, country music singer and songwriter

• Ashley Cleveland, gospel singer

• James Denton, actor

• The Dirty Guv'nahs, rock band

• Thomas Fulton, opera conductor

• Drew Holcomb, singer and songwriter

• Ellie Holcomb, singer and songwriter

• Anna Maria Horner, fabric designer and textile artist

• Byron McKeeby, artist

• Wardell Milan, artist

• Lewis Cosby, bass player, 10 Years

• John Howell Morrison, composer

• Bobby Ogdin – recording studio pianist, member of Elvis Presley's TCB Band

• Park Overall, actress

• Dolly Parton, country music singer, recipient of honorary doctorate, 2009

• Cheryl Lynn Studer, opera soprano

• Carl Sublett, painter

• Pam Tillis, country music singer

• Gil Trythall, composer and pianist

• Richard Aaker Trythall, composer and pianist

• Keith Wallen, singer and songwriter, Breaking Benjamin

• Sarah Webb, artist

• Delores Ziegler, opera singer

Authors
• Travis Beacham, screenwriter

• Lowell Cunningham, comic book writer

• Owen Davis, playwright

• Bruce Foster, paper engineer, pop-up children's books creator

• Alex Haley, novelist, biographer and essayist

• May Justus, author of children's books

• Joseph Wood Krutch, novelist, critic and naturalist

• Richard Marius, novelist, scholar and speechwriter

• Cormac McCarthy, novelist

• John C. McManus, PhD, military historian and professor of military history

• Dave Ramsey, financial guru, author, and host of The Ramsey Show

• Brad Vice, short story writer

• Kurt Vonnegut, writer

• Allen Wier, fiction writer and scholar

• William Garrett Wright, poet

Business and economy
• Charles Scott Abbott, one of the two originators of Trivial Pursuit

• Claudia Brind-Woody, IBM executive

• James Clayton, President and CEO of Clayton Homes

• Michael T. Dugan, educator and accounting scholar

• Charlie Ergen, CEO of Echostar

• James Haslam Jr., founder and CEO of Pilot Corporation

• Charles O. Holliday, Chairman of Bank of America and Former Chairman of DuPont

• Thomas M. Humphrey, economist and author

• Min Kao, CEO and founder of Garmin

• Frank Knight, economist

• Godwin Maduka, doctor and philanthropist

• Charles McClung McGhee, late 19th-century Knoxville railroad magnate and financier

• Abdisalam Omer, Governor of the Central Bank of Somalia

• Rex Repass, US-based public opinion and marketing research executive

• Jerry Sisk Jr., gemologist and television executive, co-founded Jewelry Television in 1993

• Donnie Smith, CEO of Tyson Foods

• Chris Whittle, founder of Whittle Communications and Edison Schools

Military
• Burwell B. Bell III, U.S. Army Commander

• Robert Emmet Callan, major general in the U.S. Army and assistant chief of staff in the War Department, 1931–1935

• Clifton B. Cates, aide to President Woodrow Wilson and later Commandant of the Marine Corps

• Thomas A. Davis, Captain of Spanish–American War

• Norman C. Gaddis, former Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Operations, Headquarters U.S. Air Force

• Robert C. Hinson, former Deputy Commander-in-Chief of United States Strategic Command

• Bruce K. Holloway, military commander of Allied Forces

• Ridley McLean, rear admiral in the U.S. Navy; wrote the Bluejacket's Manual, which is still used to teach naval recruits the basics of seamanship

• Spurgeon Neel, major general, pioneer in aeromedical evacuation

• Austin C. Shofner, World War II U.S. general

• Maurice F. Weisner, former Pacific Fleet Admiral

Athletics and sportscasters
• Monica Abbott, former NPF pitcher for the Washington Glory, Olympian (2008)

• Kyle Alexander (born 1996), basketball player for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League

• Chris Daw, Paralympic gold medalist

• Pete Athas, former NFL player

• Bill Bates, former NFL Pro Bowl safety

• Bianca Belair (born Bianca Blair), professional wrestler in WWE

• Buddy Bolding, former head baseball coach at Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia

• Dick Bowers, former athletic director for the University of South Florida

• Chris Burke, retired Major League Baseball player

• Kevin Burnett, former NFL player

• Ray Bussard, Hall of Fame and Olympic swimming coach, 1968–1989

• Tamika Catchings, former WNBA player, two-time Olympian (2004, 2008)

• Joey Clinkscales, professional football wide receiver, scout, and executive

• Alan Cockrell, former Major League Baseball outfielder and coach

• Denny Crawford, professional football guard

• Jonathan Crompton, NFL free agent quarterback

• Antone Davis, former National Football League offensive lineman

• Doug Dickey, College Football Hall of Fame head coach at the University of Tennessee (1964–1969) and the University of Florida (1970–1978); athletic director at Tennessee (1985–2002)

• R. A. Dickey, professional baseball pitcher

• Bobby Dodd, college football coach and athletic director at Georgia Tech

• Dale Ellis, former NBA player

• Beattie Feathers, former NFL player; collegiate football and baseball coach

• Paul Finebaum, radio host and journalist

• Cory Fleming, former NFL wide receiver

• Richmond Flowers, former NFL player

• Arian Foster, former NFL running back

• Phillip Fulmer, head coach of Tennessee Volunteers football team (1992–2008)

• Harry Galbreath, former National Football League offensive lineman

• Charlie Garner, NFL running back

• Phil Garner, former Major League Baseball player and manager

• Justin Gatlin, 2004 Summer Olympics 100m gold medalist

• Willie Gault, former NFL wide receiver

• Bobby Gordon, football player

• Sam Graddy, 1984 Summer Olympics 100m silver medalist and 4 × 100 m gold medalist

• Ray Graves, former NFL player; University of Florida head football coach (1960–1969) and athletic director (1960–1979); College Football Hall of Fame (1990)

• Ernie Grunfeld, former NBA player and current president of basketball operations, Washington Wizards

• Travis Haney, college football writer for ESPN Insider

• Alvin Harper, former NFL wide receiver

• Dee Haslam, businesswoman and co-owner of the Cleveland Browns

• Jimmy Haslam, co-owner of the Cleveland Browns

• Albert Haynesworth, NFL defensive tackle

• Todd Helton, Hall of Fame Major League Baseball first baseman for the Colorado Rockies

• Luke Hochevar, professional baseball player

• Chamique Holdsclaw, former WNBA player, Olympian (2000)

• Rick Honeycutt, former Major League Baseball player and current pitching coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers

• Allan Houston, former NBA shooting guard

• Luke Hudson, former MLB pitcher

• Rickea Jackson, WNBA small forward, Los Angeles Sparks

• Austin Johnson, former NFL player

• Dale Jones, former NFL player and current assistant coach at Appalachian State

• Lars Jorgensen (born 1970), swimmer and college coach

• Steve Kiner, former NFL player, College Football Hall of Fame inductee

• Bernard King, former NBA player

• Kara Lawson, WNBA player, Olympian (2008), ESPN analyst

• Jamal Lewis, NFL running back

• Jeremy Linn, swimmer, won one gold and one silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia

• Christine Magnuson, swimmer, won two silver medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China

• Johnny Majors, College Football Hall of Fame 1987, Heisman Trophy runner-up (1956); head football coach at Iowa State University (1968–1972), University of Pittsburgh (1973–1976) and the University of Tennessee (1977–1992)

• Peyton Manning,(Class of 1997) NFL quarterback

• Tee Martin, former NFL quarterback

• Steve Matthews, former NFL quarterback

• Jeronne Maymon (born 1991), basketball player for Hapoel Eilat B.C. of the Israeli Basketball Premier League

• Bill Mayo, All-American

• Jacques McClendon, NFL offensive lineman

• Tim McGee, NFL receiver

• Ross McGowan, professional golfer

• Greg McMichael, former Major League Baseball player

• Charles McRae, former National Football League offensive lineman

• Jordan McRae (born 1991), basketball player for Hapoel Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League

• Aries Merritt, 2012 Summer Olympics 110m hurdles gold medalist

• Anthony Miller, former NFL pro Bowl wide receiver

• Mike Miller, NFL player

• Chris Moneymaker, 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event winner

• Tom Myslinski, former NFL center

• Kevin Nash, former professional wrestler and UT basketball player

• Lindsey Nelson, sportscaster

• Augie Ojeda, Major League Baseball player for the Arizona Diamondbacks

• Candace Parker, WNBA player, Olympian (2008)

• Woody Paige, sports analyst for The Denver Post and ESPN's Around the Horn

• Bruce Pearl, former men's head basketball coach

• Buzz Peterson, former men's head basketball coach

• Carl Pickens, former NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver

• Peerless Price, former NFL Pro Bowl wide receiver

• Semeka Randall, former WNBA player

• Josh Richardson, professional basketball player, currently plays for the Miami Heat

• Mychal Rivera, tight end; brother of Glee actress Naya Rivera

• Pat Ryan, former NFL player

• Ovince St. Preux, collegiate football defensive end and linebacker; professional mixed martial artist, formerly with Strikeforce and currently with the UFC

• Mike Smithson, former MLB pitcher

• Robert Shaw, former NFL center

• Michelle Snow, former WNBA player

• Donté Stallworth, NFL WR

• Drew Steckenrider, professional baseball pitcher

• Melvin Stewart, swimmer, won two gold medals and one bronze medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain

• Pat Summitt, former women's basketball head coach (1974–2012); member of Naismith Memorial and Women's Basketball Halls of Fame; Olympian (1976); head coach for the 1984 Olympic women's basketball team that won gold

• Tyler Summitt, Pat's son and former women's basketball program head coach at Louisiana Tech

• Lenny Taylor, NFL player

• Holly Warlick, former Lady Vols basketball player and former Lady Vols head coach (2012–2019)

• Chuck Webb, NFL player

• Reggie White, former NFL defensive lineman

• Ron Widby, former NFL Pro Bowl punter

• Grant Williams, NBA player

• Jordan Williams, NFL player

• Rhyne Williams, professional tennis player

• Al Wilson, NFL player

• Gibril Wilson, NFL safety

• Jason Witten, NFL Pro Bowl tight end

• Gene Wojciechowski, college football reporter and senior writer for ESPN The Magazine

• Bob Woodruff, head football coach at Baylor University (1947–1949); head football coach and athletic director at the University of Florida (1950–1959)

• Chris Woodruff, associate head coach at the University of Tennessee, former professional tennis player

Journalists and newscasters

 * Richard Ernsberger Jr., senior editor, Newsweek
 * Huell Howser, California television personality
 * Ryan McGee, ESPN writer and commentator
 * Ann Taylor, NPR newscaster
 * Gene Wojciechowski, ESPN writer and commentator

Rhodes Scholars
• Nancy-Ann Min DeParle, Balliol College, B.A. 1981 MA 1986; graduated from Harvard Law School in 1983 with a JD degree; served in the cabinet of Tennessee Governor Ned McWherter; sat on several corporate boards; served as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy under President Obama and Director of White House Office of Healthcare Reform

• William Everett Derryberry, St. John's College, BA 1932 MA 1940; had a 34-year academic career as president of Tennessee Technological University, where he oversaw the transformation of the school from a campus of a few acres and a few buildings with 700 students and 31 faculty members to a university comprising six colleges and schools on 235 acres of property with a student body of close to 7,000 and a faculty of more than 350

• Bernadotte E. Schmitt, Merton College, BA 1908, M.A 1913; professor at Western Reserve University (1910–1925) and the University of Chicago (1925–1946); when he retired from Chicago, he held the Andrew MacLeish Distinguished Service Professorship of Modern History; served briefly in World War I as a 2nd Lieutenant of Field Artillery; during World War II, he acted as a special consultant on history in the Department of State's Division of Research and Publications and its Division of Historical Policy Research

Nobel laureates

 * James Buchanan, winner of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Economic Science; received an M.S. degree from UT in 1941
 * Peter C. Doherty, faculty member in the UT Health Science Center in Memphis

Pulitzer prize winners
• John Netherland Heiskell, 1893 graduate of the University of Tennessee; publisher and editor of the Arkansas Gazette', 1902–1972; under his leadership, the paper won a Pulitzer Prize for meritorious public service

• Owen Davis, 1889 graduate, won the Pulitzer Prize for his play Icebound in 1923

• John M. Hightower, attended the University of Tennessee 1927–1929; won a Pulitzer while at the Associated Press for International Reporting in 1952

• Ron Kirksey, 1970 graduate of the University of Tennessee, won the Pulitzer prize for public service journalism in 1994 as part of a team at the Akron Beacon Journal

• Cormac McCarthy, novelist who attended University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 1951–1952 and 1957–1960; won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for The Road

• Bernadotte E. Schmitt, earned a bachelor of arts at the University of Tennessee in 1902, won a Pulitzer in History in 1931 for his book The Coming of the War, 1914 (1930)

• John Noble Wilford, 1955 graduate of the University of Tennessee; won two Pulitzer Prizes for national reporting; science correspondent for The New York Times, and founder of the paper's weekly science section

• Edward Osborne Wilson, attended University of Tennessee 1950–1951, won two Pulitzer Prizes for nonfiction for his books On Human Nature (1979) and The Ants (1991)

Science and technology
• Mladen Bestvina, topologist, professor of mathematics at University of Utah

• William E. Bickley, entomologist

• Jack Dongarra, computer science professor; creator of LINPACK and LAPACK; 2021 Turing Award Recipient

• Gertrude Ehrlich, professor of mathematics at University of Maryland, College Park

• Weston Fulton, meteorologist, inventor

• Lee Giles, computer scientist, CiteSeer, David Reese Professor at Pennsylvania State University

• Carl B. Huffaker, biologist and agricultural scientist

• Mohammad Ataul Karim, physicist

• Frank Knight, economist

• Mounir Laroussi, plasma physicist, pioneer of plasma medicine

• Madeline Kneberg Lewis, archaeologist of the Southeastern United States

• Joana Kuntz, organizational psychologist in New Zealand

• Gerald North, atmospheric scientist, author of North Report and The Impact of Global Warming in Texas

• Douglas W. Owsley, division head of physical anthropology of Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History

• Ronald H. Petersen, mycologist of the University of Tennessee

• Alan Rabinowitz, zoologist, CEO of Panthera

• Edward K. Reedy, radar researcher and director of the Georgia Tech Research Institute, 1998–2003

• Subrata Roy, inventor, professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Florida

• Antoinette Rodez Schiesler, chemist, director of research at Villanova University

• Jeremy C. Smith, Governor's Chair and Director of UT/ORNL Center for Molecular Biophysics

• Morwen Thistlethwaite, knot theorist

• Peter Tsai, chemist, inventor of the N95 mask

• E.O. Wilson, biologist and naturalist

Astronauts
• Jeffrey Ashby

• Randolph Bresnik

• Joe Edwards

• Dominic L. Pudwill Gorie

• Chris Hadfield

• Henry Hartsfield

• Charles O. Hobaugh

• Scott J. Kelly

• Donald H. Peterson

• Margaret Rhea Seddon

• Barry E. Wilmore

Faculty

 * Sandra Blain (born 1941), ceramicist, potter, and sculptor
 * Charles W. Kent (1860–1917), scholar of the English language
 * Vernon Lattin (born 1938), president of Brooklyn College
 * Carolyn Ringer Lepre, 10th president of Salisbury University
 * Jill Mikucki, microbiologist, Antarctic researcher
 * Kate Vitasek (born 1968), author and educator, adjunct faculty in the Haslam College of Business Global Supply Chain Institute and the Graduate and Executive Education