CHATTANOOGA – Michelle Crowder, assistant director of the University of Tennessee Office of Capital Projects, has been named to serve as interim executive director of the department, succeeding Robbi Stivers who assumes a new position with California State University in April.
UT Executive Vice President Tonja Johnson, whose administrative division includes oversight of the Office of Capital Projects, selected Crowder for the interim role.
UT President Joe DiPietro announced Crowder’s appointment to the UT Board of Trustees on Wednesday afternoon.
“Robbi Stivers leaves the department exceptionally well-organized and well-positioned for long-term success,” DiPietro said. “We’re grateful for his leadership and successful cultivation of key relationships with elected and appointed officials in government so that Michelle Crowder is able to assume her interim responsibilities for a department that is already highly effective.”
Crowder has been with the UT Office of Capital Projects since 2012, where she primarily has been responsible for contract administration while also serving as part of the facilities planning team as a project manager and staff associate architect. Crowder, who received a bachelor’s degree in architecture from UT Knoxville in 1996, also is part of the office’s administrative team handling various components of project and departmental budgeting, programming, design, and bidding.
Crowder begins her interim appointment on April 17. Prior to joining UT, she was a project manager for Bullock, Smith & Partners, Inc. in Knoxville for seven years and before that was on staff with Johnson Architecture, Inc. in Knoxville and Fitts Architecture in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Stivers has served as executive director of UT capital projects since 2011. He leaves the University on April 14 to begin serving as vice president for business and finance at California State University, Chico.
Contacts
Gina Staffordstafford@tennessee.edu
865-974-8184
Jennifer Sicking
jsicking@tennessee.edu
865-974-8184