{"id":68910,"date":"2025-06-30T07:16:05","date_gmt":"2025-06-30T11:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/?p=68910"},"modified":"2025-07-14T07:54:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T11:54:09","slug":"opportunity-in-every-challenge-chancellor-lori-bruce-brings-vision-and-voice-to-utc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/news\/2025\/06\/opportunity-in-every-challenge-chancellor-lori-bruce-brings-vision-and-voice-to-utc\/","title":{"rendered":"Opportunity in every challenge: Chancellor Lori Bruce brings vision and voice to UTC"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"UTC

UTC Chancellor Lori Bruce is the 19th leader of the University. Portrait by Dan Henry\/UTC.<\/p><\/div>\n

As Dr. Lori Bruce takes the reins as chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, she won\u2019t need a map to find her way across the region.<\/p>\n

After all, she grew up just 90 minutes west of Chattanooga on a working farm in Lincoln County\u2014an upbringing she credits with shaping her resourcefulness and lifelong passion for education.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up in a rural area and my siblings and I had the freedom to roam in the woods and play and build forts and huts,\u201d Bruce recalled. \u201cSo much about that rural life, being on a farm and growing up that way, taught me the values of creativity, industriousness and resilience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you live on a farm, every day brings challenges. The cows get out and you have to go. I remember as a small child my dad saying, \u2018Lori, hold the line\u2019 because you were trying to get cows back into a pasture and the cow was 10 times my size. Being brave and standing firm when faced with that as a young child instills in you a boldness and a real confidence that you can solve problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

That early self-assurance became the foundation of a philosophy she still lives by, and her leadership approach can be described in one clear sentence: \u201cWhen others see obstacles, I see opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n

That philosophy, she explained, reflects a way of thinking that\u2019s become second nature over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how else to describe it except to say it\u2019s innate to how I think,\u201d Bruce said. \u201cIt\u2019s something a mentor once pointed out to me years ago. I didn\u2019t even realize it was a pattern until I was told, \u2018You always reframe challenges. You don\u2019t get stuck.\u2019 And that\u2019s true. Change isn\u2019t an obstacle. It\u2019s a moment to engage.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo

Photo by Dan Henry\/UTC<\/p><\/div>\n

After nearly three decades in higher education as a scholar, researcher, professor and administrator, Bruce is now the 19th leader in the University\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

She comes to UTC after serving as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Tennessee Tech since 2018, where she led academic operations for more than 10,000 students across eight colleges.<\/p>\n

Under her leadership, Tennessee Tech achieved a perfect academic program quality score from the state\u2014an accomplishment unmatched in over four decades. She led the development and launch of multiple new academic programs at the bachelor\u2019s, master\u2019s and Ph.D. levels, each aligning with statewide and regional workforce needs.<\/p>\n

Bruce spearheaded efforts to increase annual research funding from $16 million to more than $46 million, with projections indicating even higher figures for this fiscal year. She led the college through $350 million in capital improvements to campus infrastructure, from cutting-edge STEM facilities to large-scale building renovations.<\/p>\n

She also established the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence, implemented a campus-wide compensation study that led to pay increases across faculty and staff ranks, and worked to foster a supportive culture around professional development.<\/p>\n

At UTC, that same mindset will guide her approach to building on the University\u2019s upward momentum, she said, and reaching Carnegie R2 research status is in UTC\u2019s \u201cnot-too-distant future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing an emerging R2, this is an exciting time. We get to support faculty who have an entrepreneurial mindset and provide them with resources to help turn their ideas into real, innovative solutions that address societal needs,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen I think about research, there are three key aspects to it: there\u2019s grantsmanship, there\u2019s research\u2014which is the actual creation of new knowledge\u2014and there\u2019s scholarship, which is the dissemination of that new knowledge to others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that as we grow, especially in areas like research, some people might worry that we\u2019re changing who we are. But growth isn\u2019t subtraction. It\u2019s addition. Research doesn\u2019t take away from students; it creates new opportunities for students to be part of something bigger. It brings new energy into the classroom and the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo

Photo by Angela Foster\/UTC<\/p><\/div>\n

Bruce\u2019s academic journey began at Lincoln County High School in Fayetteville, Tennessee, where a career counselor noticed her aptitude for math and science.<\/p>\n

She was encouraged to consider engineering, a recommendation that led to a job shadowing opportunity at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tullahoma.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got in the wind tunnels and it was exciting,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI loved seeing the models of the planes; they had these gases that they blew across the models creating contrails and you could actually see the fluid flow. I just thought that was fantastic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI walked away from that job shadowing saying, \u2018I want to be an engineer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

She went on to earn a bachelor\u2019s and Ph.D. in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Alabama in Huntsville\u2014as well as a master\u2019s in electrical engineering from Georgia Tech. She also completed graduate coursework in biomedical engineering through the Georgia Tech\/Emory Medical School joint program.<\/p>\n

Bruce talked about how some of her earliest research confirmed that she was \u201con the right career path.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom day one, learning about technologies that had the potential to have a great impact on people\u2019s lives really excited me. One of the first projects I worked on was a four-chamber fetal echocardiogram. It\u2019s an ultrasonic image of a fetus\u2019 heart,\u201d she said, detailing how she worked on algorithms designed to detect congenital heart defects. \u201cThe mathematical underpinnings of machine learning algorithms for doing automated analysis is what people now refer to as AI.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater, when I was picking a dissertation topic, I wrote a proposal to get funding to work on the same concept\u2014but with mammograms. I wanted to work on applying machine learning to the analysis of mammograms to help radiologists be more effective at reading mammograms and determining whether there was a risk of cancer for the patient.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her higher education career encompasses extensive experience in both academic and administrative roles. Prior to her tenure at Tennessee Tech, she served as associate vice president for academic affairs and dean of the Graduate School at Mississippi State University. During her time on that campus, she also held appointments as Giles distinguished professor of electrical and computer engineering; associate dean for research and graduate studies in the Bagley College of Engineering; executive director of the High Performance Computing Collaboratory; and interim director of the Raspet Flight Research Laboratory.<\/p>\n

As a faculty member, she led research projects funded with more than $20 million from federal and industry partners, resulting in over 150 peer-reviewed scholarly publications that have been cited more than 6,000 times.<\/p>\n

But it wasn\u2019t just the research that drew her in, she said. It was the ability to showcase her entrepreneurial side.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always viewed being a faculty member like being a little startup company\u2014very entrepreneurial,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m having to generate the ideas, go find a way to fund those ideas, build teams of students and other faculty, and turn those ideas into reality.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, being a faculty member provides a fantastic platform for doing that. And now\u2014 as a leader\u2014I want to provide the opportunities for others to do that, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo

Photo by Dan Henry<\/p><\/div>\n

Bruce said she views UTC as uniquely positioned in today\u2019s higher education landscape thanks to the University\u2019s scale and collaborative culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re at that perfect size,\u201d she said. \u201cLarge enough to have a wide range of disciplines and strong academic programs but small enough that people talk to each other, work together and support one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

She believes one of the University\u2019s most essential responsibilities is preparing students to adapt.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not just training students for their first job out of college,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re helping them build careers that span decades, often in fields that don\u2019t even exist yet.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, our job is to equip them with content knowledge\u2014but also creativity, communication, critical thinking and resilience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bruce regularly speaks to students about the power of determination and grit, emphasizing that perseverance often outweighs raw talent in achieving success.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can be the smartest person in the room, but if you give up the first time you hit a roadblock, it doesn\u2019t matter,\u201d she said. \u201cWhat makes the difference is the ability to keep going and reframe setbacks as setups for comebacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

That message resonates strongly with first-generation college students, a population Bruce is especially passionate about supporting. While she doesn\u2019t fall into that category herself, she witnessed firsthand the transformative power of higher education in her own home.<\/p>\n

She shared the story of how her parents, Charles and Judy Mann, changed her \u201centire family\u2019s trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter they graduated high school, my mom and dad both went straight into factory jobs and worked in clothing factories. My dad recently shared a story with me about it. He said that his job was to staple boxes; he built cardboard boxes and he stapled them. After being there for a while, they gave an aptitude test to the people in the factory. He scored very high, so they said, \u2018OK, what we want you to do is help us computerize the factory. We\u2019re going to send you to Georgia Tech for training to learn about computers and you\u2019re going to help us computerize the factory.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though he wasn\u2019t formally a college student, he was educated in programming and became a working computer scientist.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was 11 or 12 years old, my mother said, \u2018I really want to go to college,\u2019 so she and her sister (Cheryl Womack) quit their factory jobs and started college. They enrolled at Motlow State Community College and then went on to Middle Tennessee State.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose years\u2014my tween years\u2014were incredibly formative for me. I saw my mom doing homework late at night, running a household with lots of kids, helping my dad on the farm\u2014he would run the farm at night while she studied\u2014and still showing up for class every single day.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe would come home and tell us about the amazing things she learned; it might be about Aztec Indians or a math proof that she did. She was just genuinely excited to have the opportunity to learn. She had this real love of learning and it left a mark on me that shaped everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her mom went on to have a long career as a high school math teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth my mom and my dad had the opportunity to become educated, to learn and to really make a difference\u2014not only in their careers but in our entire family\u2019s trajectory,\u201d Bruce continued. \u201cThat is a big part of why I am passionate about higher education because of the difference that it makes in people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Photo

Photo by Dan Henry\/UTC<\/p><\/div>\n

Now, she and her husband, Dr. JW Bruce\u2014a professor of electrical engineering\u2014are both joining the UTC family. The two met as undergraduates in an electrical engineering class at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and have been married since 1993.<\/p>\n

Their son, Walker, is a sophomore at UT Knoxville majoring in industrial engineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a born engineer,\u201d she said, laughing, \u201cand very outdoorsy. He\u2019s an Eagle Scout who loves hiking, kayaking, hunting. He\u2019s had a great start at UTK and he\u2019s excited that now we\u2019re all in the UT System together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of work, Bruce enjoys staying busy with hands-on creative projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat would people be surprised to learn about me? I truly have never met a craft I didn\u2019t want to do,\u201d she said. \u201cI love to sew. I love embroidery. I love textiles. I have multiple sewing machines. I\u2019ve never been formally trained in any of it, but I\u2019ve actually had my works exhibited. And I love doing very, very miniature scale pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that spirit of finding innovative ways to make something out of nothing has been inside me going back to my time growing up. It has shaped my approach as a professional, as a leader and as a person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Learn more<\/h4>\n

Visit UTC<\/a><\/p>\n

How to apply<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As Dr. Lori Bruce takes the reins as chancellor of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, she won\u2019t need a map to find her way across the region. After all, she grew up just 90 minutes west of Chattanooga on a working farm in Lincoln County\u2014an upbringing she credits with shaping her resourcefulness and lifelong passion for education.<\/p>\n

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