Tennessee Tech Board of Trustees

Allcott is a music professor, cello instructor, and Director of Orchestra Studies. 

As a Tech professor, he has received the university’s Scholastic Research Award and was awarded a non-instructional assignment for research. 

He received a multi-year grant from the National String Project Consortium to found the Tennessee Tech String Project, which provides music lessons for students while providing mentored teaching experience for Tech students.

As conductor of the Bryan Symphony Orchestra he developed an annual curricular music education concert performed for 4th graders of Putnam County, which has grown to include students from Jackson, Warren, and Cumberland counties — meaning every student, 4th grade and up, in these four counties has visited the Tech Campus for a live orchestral performance at the Bryan Fine Arts Center. 

Allcott has served as president of the Tech chapter of the American Association of University Professors and as a member of United Campus Workers, which unites faculty and staff to advocate for all employees on campus. He is a past president of the Tennessee chapter of American String Teachers Association and has presented at ASTA’s national conference on the topic of Autism and instrumental music instruction. He was elected to the faculty senate as a member of Tech’s Administrative Council. 

Allcott received his bachelor’s degree in music from Drake University and his master’s degree in music from Indiana University. While working toward a doctorate, he accepted the position as music director at the Atlanta Ballet. In his 10 years with the company, Allcott conducted over 250 performances, supervised 52 musicians, and managed the ballet’s annual music budget of over $250,000. Recently he celebrated his 10th season as music director of the Oak Ridge Symphony Orchestra in Tennessee and has been music director of the Tennessee Philharmonic in Murfreesboro. 

He serves on the Academic and Student Affairs Committee.

Ms. Griffin, a senior from Seymour, Tennessee, has been involved in campus leadership since arriving at Tech in 2019.

She served as Tech’s Student Government Association’s senator from the College of Education during the 2019-2020 school year. In 2020-2021, she served as the SGA Secretary of External Affairs and as a Resident Assistant. In 2021-2022, she was elected as the SGA Executive Treasurer, was the vice president of programming and risk management for Tech’s Panhellenic Executive Council, served as a Student Success Coordinator for Tech’s Flight Path program, and was a Student Orientation Assistant. She also was the student member of the Tennessee Tech Parent Association Board of Trustees.

Griffin is a member of Alpha Delta Pi.

Along with her work as a secondary education major, she also is working on two minors: English and Leadership.

Ms. Trudy Harper had an illustrious career with the Texas Utilities Electric Company and Tenaska, founding and serving as president of Tenaska Power Services Company, the power marketing affiliate of Tenaska.

Ms. Harper is an independent director of the InfraREIT Board of Directors, and serves as consultant and a member of the Board of Stakeholders at Tenaska Inc. She served as the president of Tenaska Power Services Co. from 2001 and 2012.

She was General Manager of business development for Tenaska’s independent power plant development efforts. Before joining Tenaska in 1992, Ms. Harper held various transmission and generation planning and state and federal regulatory affairs positions with Texas Utilities Electric Co. (TXU) in Dallas. In her various roles at TXU she was responsible for licensing new generation and transmission facilities and developing their policies on transmission access and pricing.

She has served as chairman of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation Stakeholders Committee.

A member and previous co-chair of the Tennessee Tech College of Engineering Industry Advisory Board, Ms. Harper also is a member of the university’s Academy for Renaissance Engineering.

She was the 2010 recipient of the Gulf Coast Power Association’s Pat Wood Power Star Award for her contributions to the deregulation of the Texas power market, and was honored as an Engineer of Distinction in 2014 by Tech’s College of Engineering.

Ms. Harper also holds an M.B.A. from Southern Methodist University.

She serves as the chair of the Executive Committee.

Mr. Tom Jones is president of Research Electronics International, one of the leading designers, developers, and manufacturers of counter surveillance equipment.

Mr. Jones served in the U.S. Navy, later serving as an instructor at the Naval Nuclear Power School in Orlando, Florida, teaching math and electrical engineering. He also has worked as a defense contractor supporting the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization.

He serves on the Advisory Board for Tech’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and in 2003 was a panelist at an open forum on homeland security held on campus.

Mr. Jones graduated from Tech in 1986 with a degree in electrical engineering, and holds a master’s degree in engineering from the University of Central Florida.

He serves on the Executive Committee.

Mr. Fred Lowery, a Tech alumnus, serves as senior vice president and president of Life Sciences Solutions and Laboratory Products at Thermo Fisher Scientific, the world leader in serving science, with revenues of more than $24 billion and approximately 70,000 employees globally. He also was recently appointed to the DuPont Board of Directors.

After graduating from Austin-East High School in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1988, Lowery attended Tech on a football scholarship.

“At Tech, I learned how to frame and solve problems from my experience in engineering,” he said. “But I also learned how to interact with people in a way to bring out the best in every situation. Being able to frame a problem and come up with the right answer is important, but inspiring people to embrace a solution or, better yet, empowering them to improve it, is a much higher calling.”

Lowery says Tech’s student population must reflect the current and future workforce demographics and the demographics of the country, and he has made it his mission to help lead Tech’s Ethnic Diversity Scholarship Initiative to its $2 million goal. While Tech’s student body has become more diverse throughout the years, Lowery has made it his mission to ensure this continues to grow.

Lowery established the Fred M. Lowery Award Scholarship to encourage students from Austin-East High School to attend Tech. He also established the Chi Lambda Chapter Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Scholarship to attract more black male students to Tech.

“My philanthropic efforts are centered on helping people reach their potential and supporting the institutions that have been the most influential in my life,” said Lowery.

Mr. Lowery graduated from Tech in 1994 with a degree in mechanical engineering, and holds a master’s degree in manufacturing management from Kettering University (formerly General Motors Institute of Engineering and Management).

Cookeville native Thomas Lynn is a local banking pioneer and philanthropist who joined First National Bank of Tennessee in 1992 and played a key role in the expansion of the bank into Sparta, Algood, Crossville and Fairfield Glade.   

In 2010, he was named Chairman of the Board, First National was organized by a group of community leaders who believed that banks should bring value to the communities they serve. As a banking professional in Cookeville for close to four decades, Lynn has served the Upper Cumberland by helping launch new non-profits and taking leadership roles in a number of civic organizations and endeavors. As a founding board member of the Putnam County YMCA in 1979, Thomas later served as the president.   

Lynn’s commitment to Tech, where he met his wife Kay, is evident throughout campus.  In 2004, Thomas orchestrated a charitable concert featuring country music legend Vince Gill that raised $140,000 to support the building of a new home for the School of Nursing.

Over the years, Thomas has served as the President of the College of Business Advisory Board and in 2008 as Chair of the Dean and Director of Development Search Committees for the college. Lynn and his family became the first donors to renovate classrooms in Johnson Hall. Together with Kay, his mother, Jeanette; his sister, Pam; and brother-in-law, Dr. Daniel Coonce they established the U.L. Tommy Lynn classroom suite. Most recently, the Lynn siblings and their spouses established the first College of Agriculture and Human Ecology classroom endowment in honor of their mothers, Jeanette Lynn and Anna Coonce.  

In 2009, Lynn and a group of local philanthropists came together to establish the Mustard Seed Ranch. The Ranch is a community-sponsored interdenominational Christian ministry that provides a loving and caring home for children to heal from their past and build the foundation for a promising future. 

In addition to his duties with Mustard Seed, Thomas served as a District Steering Member for the Friends of Scouting fundraising drive for over 15 years and as a board member of the Cookeville Chamber of Commerce, serving as president in 2012.       

Thomas and Kay have four children, Patrick Lynn; Jack Lynn (Lindy); Katherine Lynn Hill (Matthew); and Bobby Lynn (Madison).   

Ms. Rhedona Rose is the chief administrative officer and executive vice president of Tennessee Farm Bureau, the largest farm bureau in the United States.

The first female executive to lead the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation, Ms. Rose began working at Tennessee Farm Bureau in 1986 and became director of public policy and chief lobbyist in 1995. She served in that capacity until she was named executive vice president in December 2010, being named chief administrative officer in 2017.

In 1984, Ms. Rose graduated from Tennessee Tech with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture. She also holds a master’s degree from Texas A&M.

She serves as the chair of the Academic and Student Affairs Committee and also serves on the Executive Committee.

Mr. Johnny D. Stites has served as managing partner of XI Investments, one of the largest commercial and industrial real estate developers in the Upper Cumberland Region of Middle Tennessee, for more than 25 years. He served as CEO of J&S Construction Company, Inc. for more than 43 years before stepping down in March 2015 to give more focus to XI Investments.

Throughout his career he has served on numerous boards and organizations. He is a Certified Professional Constructor, and a founding member and past president of the Home Builders Association of the Upper Cumberland. He has served more than 17 years with the Associated General Contractors (AGC), the largest and oldest construction organization in the state and the country. He served as President of the Middle Tennessee Branch of AGC from 2004-2006 and 2006-2007 and served as President of AGC of Tennessee from January 2014 through June 2015.

In 2013, Mr. Stites was honored with the Skill, Integrity, and Responsibility (SIR) Construction Lifetime Achievement Award by the AGC of Middle Tennessee’s Branch. He also received the Alumni Citation Award and the Distinguished Business Leader award from Abilene Christian University, his alma mater, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree and served on its Board of Trustees for 16 years. He also holds a master's in professional studies from Tennessee Tech University, graduating in 2017.

In February 2014, he was appointed to the Tennessee Board of Regents by Governor Bill Haslam to represent the 6th congressional district, and served until resigning in 2015 upon being named to his current state role.

He previously served on Tech’s College of Business Board of Trustees.

He  serves as the chair of the Audit and Business Committee.