TRUE HERITAGE A significant preservation partnership between former Senate Majority Leader Dr. Bill Frist, wife Tracy Frist, and MTSU Anthropology professor Kevin Smith (pictured at right) relates to a Frist-owned property on the banks of the Harpeth River in Williamson County. Dr. Frist, a heart and lung transplant surgeon and former majority leader of the U.S. Senate, and his wife, an educator, writer, and accomplished equestrian from Virginia who is one-quarter Native American, purchased the land in 2015 with the aim of preserving the site called “Old Town.” The property contains the remains of a people whose nomadic forbearers arrived in the region some 12,000 years ago. Smith, an internationally recognized scholar on middle Tennessee’s archaeology, was the 2017 recipient of the MTSU Foundation’s Career Achievement Award, the pinnacle of recognition for stellar MTSU professors.
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MTSU’s Board of Trustees in September 2017 confirmed the appointment of Mark Byrnes as the institution’s provost and chief academic officer. Interim provost since May 2016, Byrnes completed a B.S. in Political Science at MTSU in 1983. He earned a diploma in International and Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics, as well as a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University. A specialist in American government and politics, Byrnes joined the Political Science faculty at MTSU in 1991. He is a nationally recognized expert on the presidency and has published books on NASA, President James K. Polk, and Tennessee politics. Byrnes previously served as dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 2010 until his appointment as interim provost. He also was elected to the Rutherford County Board of Education from 2004 to 2012, chosen chair for four years, and selected vice chair for three years.
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