UC Foundation Professor of Psychology Amye Warren, a member of the UTC faculty since 1984, is the 2025 Spotlight on Faculty Excellence honoree. Photo by Angela Foster.
As the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga College of Arts and Sciences’ annual Spotlight on Faculty Excellence event approaches, this year’s honoree—Dr. Amye Warren—reflected on her four decades-long career.
“I was very honored to be selected because I feel like people, at least on the committee, were noticing the work that I have done for these many years,” Warren said.
The CAS Access and Inclusive Excellence Committee will celebrate Warren at its annual faculty spotlight event on Thursday, March 20. Now in its fourth year, the Spotlight on Faculty Excellence series highlights exceptional CAS faculty, offering them a platform to showcase their research, scholarship and creative work to the UTC campus and Chattanooga community.
For the past four decades, Warren—a UC Foundation professor of psychology and graduate faculty member—has applied insights from language and cognitive development research to enhance educational and justice outcomes for children, adolescents and autistic individuals. As part of the event, she will give a talk discussing the intersectionality between psychology, language and the justice system.
Dr. Amye Warren
In 1984, Warren started as an associate professor at UTC. Conducting research in child development while teaching classes, Warren has dedicated her time to learning primarily about child testimony, language and cognitive development.
By the end of her first five years at UTC, she had earned tenure and taken on leadership roles as coordinator of the Research Psychology concentration and director of the Psychological Science graduate program.
Since then, Warren has taught thousands of undergraduate and graduate students in courses such as The Psychology of Child Development and Applied Developmental Psychology. She also leads the practicum course for the Department of Psychology.
As a professor and researcher, Warren loves learning and passing on her knowledge to younger generations. She said she is grateful to have found an understanding and comfortable workplace to spend her career.
“It has been a great place to work in that I’ve felt like I had the flexibility to pursue the kind of research that I wanted to do,” Warren said. “It was nice that this was not a publish or perish environment. I felt like I had the support of my colleagues to pursue the kinds of research and service that I chose to pursue.”
Outside of UTC, Warren is heavily involved with the community, taking a special interest in helping people with autism. Raising a son with autism, Warren was inspired to get involved with the Chattanooga Autism Center and has worked with UTC’s Mosaic Program to lead the UTC Au-some Mocs team at the annual Chattanooga Autism Celebration Walk for the last several years.
Additionally, Warren’s research on topics such as child development and child testimony has led to dozens of published journal articles, helping the Department of Psychology obtain multiple grants to teach others how to best support children regardless of their background.
Now, as she wraps up her 41st year at UTC, Warren is preparing to retire in June. Although she recognized that she will miss her colleagues and students, she is looking forward to seeing what they accomplish in the future.
“I hope what I’m passing on to my younger faculty here is that they can pursue their passions,” Warren said. “They can do the kinds of quality research and teaching that they want to do.”
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Service Awards recognizes 242 faculty and staff for their years at UTC
Dr. Amye Warren, flanked by UT System President Randy Boyd and Chancellor Steve Angle, was honored for 40 years of service at the September 2024 UTC Service Awards Luncheon.
