Lisa Stearns leads the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture’s marketing and communications team as vice chancellor. The team serves four units—UT Extension, UT AgResearch, the Herbert College of Agriculture, and the College of Veterinary Medicine—along with numerous programs across the state of Tennessee. The team is focused on raising the profile of the institute by communicating the Real.Life.Solutions created every day by faculty and staff.

Prior to joining the Institute, Stearns was a health care executive with more than twenty years of experience overseeing the marketing and communications efforts for a large, multi-hospital system in East Tennessee. She began her career in broadcast television in Knoxville serving as a reporter, news anchor, and producer at what is now WVLT-TV.

A native of California’s San Joaquin Valley, she received her undergraduate degree in journalism and public relations from California State University Fresno, and obtained her master’s degree in broadcast journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Learning and Leadership at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.