Education - Randy Boyd

Randy Boyd is committed to making this the greatest decade in the history of the University of Tennessee.

Boyd is the 26th President of the University of Tennessee and serves as the chief executive officer of the system's six campuses and institutes.

Boyd has served as UT’s 26th president since November of 2018, and serves as the chief executive officer of the statewide university system. The UT System includes campuses in Chattanooga, Pulaski and Martin; the Health Science Center in Memphis; and the Institute of Public Service. Additionally, it includes the flagship campus in Knoxville, which is also comprised of the Space Institute in Tullahoma and the statewide Institute of Agriculture. The UT System also manages Oak Ridge National Laboratory through its UT-Battelle partnership, where Boyd serves as co-chairman.

Boyd decided to dedicate his life to improving the lives of others through education a decade ago. After forming knoxAchieves, and later tnAchieves to help more high school graduates in Tennessee go to college, Boyd took a leave of absence from his company in 2013 to help Governor Bill Haslam launch the state’s Drive to 55 workforce development initiative, with the goal of equipping 55 percent of Tennesseans with a college degree or certificate by the year 2025.

As part of that effort to help more Tennesseans gain the workforce skills they need, the Drive to 55 includes nation-leading scholarship programs like the Tennessee Promise and Tennessee Reconnect. Together, these programs have already helped nearly 300,000 high school seniors and adults go to community or technical college, tuition-free.

KNOXACHIEVES: THE ORIGINAL IDEA

knoxAchieves was born at Randy’s kitchen table in the spring of 2008.

Randy had invited his neighbor, then-Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, to breakfast to pitch an idea to make Knoxville the ‘most pet friendly city in America.’ But Mayor Ragsdale had a pitch of his own. Ragsdale needed Randy’s help to send more Knox County high school graduates to college. At the time, nearly one-third of Knox County’s graduates were not getting any training after high school, because of financial or societal barriers, keeping too many from earning a living wage after high school. These stories and statistics hit home for Randy, as he was the first person in his family to go to college.

At the kitchen table, the two quickly outlined a program that included free tuition for nearly 500 Knoxville high school seniors, who in return were asked to complete a few community service hours and to meet with a volunteer mentor. In 60 days, Randy had helped raise $2.3 million to fund the program, and within 90 days, they recruited 176 volunteer mentors to support the students.

Later, knoxAchieves expanded to tnAchieves in 2011 to triple in size. tnAchieves raised $15.5 million in private donations to support more than 10,000 students in its first six years. When tnAchieves board member, Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam, was elected Governor of Tennessee, he and Randy decided this program needed to be expanded statewide.

Together, Randy and Governor Haslam created the state’s Drive to 55 workforce initiative and launched the Tennessee Promise, offering every high school graduate in Tennessee two years of community or technical college, tuition-free. The Tennessee Promise is funded through an endowment using excess lottery funds and therefore will never be a burden to taxpayers. The scholarship is considered “last-dollar,” which means it pays only what existing federal and state aid does not cover.

tnAchieves continues to serve as a partnering agency with the Tennessee Promise program to help make it work in 85 of the state’s 95 counties. Each student receiving the scholarship must complete eight hours of community service each semester and meet with a volunteer mentor to help guide and advise the student through the college process. To date, nearly 42,000 Tennesseans have volunteered their time to serve as tnAchieves mentors.

Because of the Tennessee Promise, the state’s community and technical colleges have experienced double digit growth in enrollment, and Tennessee now leads the nation in the number of students completing the Federal FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) to help them pay for college.

COMMUNITY SCHOOLS

The creation of knoxAchieves, and later tnAchieves, provided college access to many students who had never dreamed of affording college before.

But it also shed light on a difficult realization: many of Tennessee’s students were simply not prepared for college. Randy knew we had to intervene earlier to truly help these students succeed.

Randy began meeting with University of Tennessee education and psychology professor, Dr. Bob Kronick, to get a better idea of why many students were falling behind. Dr. Kronick explained many students couldn’t focus at school because they were dealing with hunger, violence in their homes, and didn’t have access to dental or vision care.

It became clear to Randy that we can have the best teachers in the world, led by the greatest principals, but if children are living in a toxic environment, it is nearly impossible for them to be successful in school.

In 2010, Randy partnered with the University of Tennessee to launch the first University Assisted Community School, a public and private partnership, at Pond Gap Elementary School in Knoxville. Randy and Jenny contributed 100 percent of the costs for the first five years of the school.

Based on Pond Gap’s success, Knoxville’s Great Schools Partnership has now helped Knox County establish 18 more community schools. Each has a resource coordinator to recruit and align community resources. Each also has a site-steering committee to ensure that decisions are community-based and not top-down.