Dr. Delight Yokley has been appointed assistant provost for Student Success at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and will join the University on Sept. 18.
Dr. Jerold L. Hale, UTC provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, announced the appointment.
Dr. Delight Yokley
“Dr. Yokley was an outstanding candidate and will be a terrific appointment,” Hale said. “Her professional background, management experience and collaborative leadership will serve UTC well as we embark on an exciting initiative to promote cohort experiences for our students.
“She is the right person to help us move the needle on student retention, persistence and graduation rates, building on UTC’s successes during Chancellor (Steven R.) Angle’s tenure.”
Yokley comes to UTC to direct “A Moc’s First Year,” the Quality Enhancement Plan proposed in the spring for the University’s Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) reaffirmation. This new program aims to increase first-time, full-time freshman students’ retention and graduation rates. “A Moc’s First Year” will connect current and new initiatives toward a centralized learning community model that increases student and faculty interaction, the sense of community on campus, new students’ connectedness to Chattanooga, and overall UTC student success.
The search committee was led by Dr. Cindy Williamson, UTC director of assessment and SACSCOC liaison.
“We are excited to have Dr. Yokley join our UTC team and look forward to the continued development of ‘A Moc’s First Year,’” Williamson said. “We are confident that with her experience and leadership, ‘A Moc’s First Year’ will become a signature program that we can be proud of and that attracts students to UTC.”
Yokley most recently served as the Dean of the Learning Commons—a variety of first-year experience and student success programs—at the University of Mount Olive in North Carolina, where she participated in and led many activities that will now be a part of her UTC portfolio.
Before Mount Olive, she researched and developed programming on academic support and career development for the Graduate Scholars Program at Virginia Tech University while simultaneously pursuing a doctorate. She received a bachelor’s degree in history from Messiah University in Pennsylvania and a master’s degree in education from Cleveland State University in Ohio.
“I am excited about the opportunity to join the UTC community and academic affairs team as we create the QEP’s learning communities,” Yokley said. “I am hopeful these communities will help first-year students to engage and establish connections on campus and in Chattanooga as they transition into college.”
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