Dr. Allen Pratt stands outside of Hunter Hall. Photo by Angela Foster.
Dr. Allen Pratt has been named the interim director of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Center for Excellence and Innovation in Education.
The announcement was made by Dr. Jerold L. Hale, UTC provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs, and Dr. Valerie Rutledge, dean of the College of Health, Education and Professional Studies.
Pratt, who joined the UTC faculty in 2016, had most recently been the UTC School of Education’s director of strategic partnerships. He moved into that role in March 2024 after serving as interim co-director of the School of Education since 2022. In addition, he has served as executive director of the National Rural Education Association (NREA) since 2016.
“With teacher preparation and rural education being top priorities of the University of Tennessee System and the state, Dr. Allen Pratt is the right person to help us get the center stood up and functioning while a national search is conducted for a permanent director,” Hale said. “Allen is incredibly talented and incredibly passionate about the work that needs to be done; in fact, the original center idea was something that he had proposed. So he’s the right person at the right time to help us get it established.”
“Allen came to us having had an exceptional career with lots of different connections and had been in roles where he had been reaching out to local areas,” Rutledge said. “He brought a broad perspective on education that really expanded our vantage point here at UTC and contributed significantly to the School of Education.”
Pratt said that the Center for Education and Innovation in Education will work alongside the School of Education—a partnership that will allow UTC to be “agile and responsive” to the ever-changing K-12 landscape.
“The infrastructure and setup of school districts often don’t align with the governance of colleges and universities,” Pratt explained. “The center will help break down some of those barriers, so to speak, while creating an innovative approach to partnership opportunities. It gives us a way to be more nimble and flexible and help all sides—from the University’s School of Education to local school districts to communities throughout the region.”
Pratt has spent his entire career in education, with much of his experience in non-urban settings. Before joining the NREA, whose national headquarters are housed on the UTC campus, his resume included stints as a high school science teacher and coach, high school principal, assistant superintendent, executive director of the Tennessee Rural Education Association and executive director of the Tennessee Department of Education’s East Tennessee regional field office of the Centers of Regional Excellence.
NREA is the voice for education in rural areas and communities across the United States. The organization has members in 50 states and four countries focused on providing support services across the entire rural education spectrum.
“Since coming to us eight years ago, Allen has been an outstanding part of our program,” Rutledge said. “He has taught in the educational leadership program, preparing people to enter into leadership roles in schools. He has forged partnerships that have resulted in grants for the School of Education, resulting in our becoming connected with organizations and individuals with whom we might never have collaborated. He’s been a plus for us, and we look forward to his continued leadership.”
In building up the Center for Excellence and Innovation in Education and its strategic focus areas—which include educator and leader preparation, literacy instruction, policy and technical support, rural and urban education, and innovative school models—Pratt said he will lean on his experiences from visiting other centers across the country, taking “ideas and perspectives that work” and blending them with the “uniqueness of Chattanooga.”
“We have more of a community spirit than a lot of other universities and school systems—especially in our municipality leadership and in our community in general. I think that’s a different and unique piece for us,” he said.
“My goal is that when they hire a permanent director, this person is coming into something established—but not established in the sense that they can’t make changes. It will be a starting point for that person to be a leader of the center and take it to the next level. That’s my job.”
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