A Passion for City and University

Kim White joins the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga on Dec. 1 as the next vice chancellor for development and alumni affairs and executive director of the University of Chattanooga Foundation.

The position is multifaceted, with reporting structures involving three separate entities: UTC, the UC Foundation Board of Directors and the University of Tennessee Foundation, Inc. White is quite familiar with all three, having held multiple leadership roles at UTC and within the UT System over the past 18 years.

“Anybody that knows me knows there are two things that are always part of me, and it’s the passion I have for this city and the University; they go hand in hand,” says White, who received a Bachelor of Arts degree from UTC in 1982. “It’s exciting to be able to spend the next part of my career giving back to a University that has given so much to me.”

White has been president of the UTC Alumni Board and an active member of the UC Foundation Board, serving as chair from 2017 to 2019. In the process, she became just the second woman in the Foundation’s 50-plus year history to hold that position. She served on every Foundation committee, including the development, endowment and real estate committees.

In 2018, she was appointed to the UT (system) Board of Trustees by Gov. Bill Haslam, a role she will relinquish before assuming her position at UTC.

“It is an honor to have the opportunity to become an official member of the University,” White says, “and to continue to move UTC forward by getting the community and donors behind students and student success.”

White was most recently president and CEO of River City Company—a nonprofit organization dedicated to Downtown Chattanooga’s economic growth and development—from 2009 to 2020. Under her leadership, Chattanooga saw a renewed emphasis on downtown housing, improved connections with UTC and the creation of great public spaces.

“What I want to do is take the community engagement aspect and bring it to the table, to make sure that the community understands what a vitally important role UTC plays in the health of the city,” White says. “UTC is an economic driver. It’s a talent driver. People that love this city should be giving back to the University in a variety of ways.”