Go Mocs: Liz Hathaway and Theresa Blackman named to SoCon Faculty and Staff team

Two members of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga family—UC Foundation Associate Professor Liz Hathaway and Theresa Blackman, assistant director of pre-health student services and an advisor in the College of Arts and Sciences—have been selected to the 2023-2024 All-Southern Conference Faculty and Staff Team.

Hathaway and Blackman joined representatives selected from each of the 10 member schools in the conference. While decisions regarding selections are made at the discretion of each SoCon school, all recipients share the common characteristics of demonstrating service to the institution through vital contributions to service, campus life, teaching and research.

Award recipients will receive an engraved plaque presented by Southern Conference Commissioner Michael Cross at the Mocs men’s basketball game Feb. 28 at McKenzie Arena.

Dr. Liz Hathaway

Hathaway is a professor in the Department of Health and Human Performance and, for the last two years, she has served as a faculty in residence at West Campus Housing—a residence hall with 600 first-year students. Passionate about providing mentorship opportunities as part of the Mocs experience, she invites students to connect with her weekly through a morning walk, dinner at the campus dining hall and open “pop by” office hours.

She also serves the College of Health, Education and Professional Studies residential college as the Healthy Eating and Active Living Through HHP (HEALTH) Residential Learning Community coordinator.

“I love mentoring; that’s my bread-and-butter,” she said, “and I mentor because I’ve had amazing mentors. Because of that, I am where I am, so it’s kind of a paying-it-forward.

“It’s an honor to get to walk alongside students during this phase of their life because they’re emerging adults. They’re stepping away from mom and dad, grandparents, whoever raised them, and now it’s, ‘How am I going to walk on my own?’ Being double their age, I bring a different perspective. It’s passing forward the lessons I’ve learned either through mentors or mistakes and trying to help these students.”

Hathaway has more than 30 published articles and 40 presentations and includes current and former students in her research. She is an associate editor for the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal.

She earned bachelor’s degrees in both economics and sports studies from the University of Georgia, a master’s degree in public health from Georgia Southern University, and a master’s in kinesiology from Georgia College. She returned to the University of Georgia for her doctoral degree in kinesiology before arriving at UTC in 2016.

Calling herself a lifelong learner, Hathaway is working on a master’s in applied sports psychology through an online program offered by Adams State University in Colorado.

“It is truly an honor to represent UTC on the all-conference team and support our student-athletes, and I’m pretty passionate about bringing our students to the games,” Hathaway said. “My background is: I’m 6-foot-1 and I’ve always been long and lean. I was a student assistant for the University of Georgia women’s basketball team and got to see the environment of student-athletes. It’s basically two full-time jobs.

“During my time here at UTC, I have been able to mentor female student-athletes, but I also want to make sure that all of our students have a good support system. Living in West Campus, we’re so close (to the arenas), so why would we not go support our volleyball team? Why would we not go support our women’s and men’s basketball teams? So I’m just trying to create a nice support system.”

Theresa Blackman

Blackman first came to UTC in 2017. Since adding pre-health advising to her repertoire in 2019, her leadership has resulted in a 25% increase in professional health care program acceptance.

Highlights of her time at UTC have included creating the MEDIC residential learning community in partnership with the Department of Chemistry; collaborating on the creation of a multidisciplinary MCAT prep course slated to debut in spring 2024 with the support of faculty members across multiple disciplines in the College of Arts and Sciences; and establishing partnerships with UT Health Science Center and Erlanger Hospital.

“It’s pretty cool. I’ve never really won an award before,” Blackman said. “I’m one of those people that words of affirmation make me uncomfortable, the true millennial plight. But honestly, it’s really cool, and I just feel honored that people would think I’ve done a good enough job to win this.”

Blackman is a two-time graduate of Lee University in Cleveland, Tennessee, earning a bachelor’s degree in European history and a master’s degree in college student development.

The student development background has allowed her to take a different approach in working with students on career tracks, including medical, dental, physician assistant, physical therapy and occupational therapy.

Blackman said she has a desire to make UTC “the place for pre-health education, and that keeps me busy. I do about 800 advising appointments a year, which is pretty significant.

“Pre-health is one of those things that sounds great on paper, but most people have no idea what to do to get there,” she continued. “Because of my student development background, I have a bit more of a unique approach to it.

“I wanted to create community for pre-health students because getting into med(ical) school is really, really hard. These students sacrifice so much. They’re not going on spring break. They’re not going out with their friends. They’re staying in and studying and volunteering at hospitals. So I wanted to give them community—and it just sort of built up from there.”

Like Hathaway, Blackman stands 6-foot-1, but wasn’t really into team sports. She played soccer while she was young, participated in basketball for a short time as a high school freshman and dabbled in rugby “for a hot minute” during her time at Lee.

She is an avid runner and, alongside her husband, Richard, is gearing up for her 10th half-marathon.

“In 2018, my husband and I got into running,” she said. “I’ve always been a huge Disney fan and I was like, ‘Let’s run this half-marathon at Disney World’—and it was great. We’ve been running ever since.”

Past UTC recipients of Southern Conference faculty and staff awards include: