UNIVERSITY of Tennessee Southern Chancellor Melinda Schlager Arnold PhD told Venture Nashville the Pulaski-based university has many opportunities to extend education and services for students and professionals -- including those who aim to advance entrepreneurial startups and other businesses.

As VNC reported May 22, Giles County-based UT Southern and the Lawrence County Economic Development Foundation were at that time the only two organizations negotiating with Launch Tennessee to become home to a regional entrepreneur center within the Launch Tennessee partner network. The LCED Foundation is an affiliate of the Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce.

Southern Middle Tennessee has been without an indigenous regional entrepreneur center since an earlier short-lived LaunchTN partner shuttered its program in Tullahoma, 60 miles from Pulaski.

The latest effort to fill the gap seems to be the most promising of the past decade. 

Arnold describes herself in her LinkedIn profile as "Innovator, Change Agent, Results-Oriented Higher Education Entrepreneur."

In a VNC interview July 22, the chancellor said, "My sincere hope is that we will secure" a contract with Launch Tennessee that would essentially greenlight the university's founding and operating of Middle Southern Tennessee entrepreneur center, which would be a LaunchTN network partner.

Arnold added that whatever the outcome of LaunchTN's selection process, UT Southern plans to "move forward" serving the region's businesses and entrepreneurs, as well as UT Southern students.

The chancellor is clearly leaning into her new role, while UT Southern continues to enjoy its gains in U.S. News & World Report's 2025 Best Colleges rankings. Details here.

Among other pro-business and -entrepreneurship resources, UT Southern is home to the D.W. Johnston School of Business, which was part of Martin Methodist College, until four years ago when it joined the UT System.

VNC's efforts since July 21 to obtain comments for this article from Lawrence County Chamber CEO Ryan Egly, who also leads the abovementioned Foundation, have thus far been unsuccessful. Egly is member of the board of directors of Tennessee Technology Development Corporation dba Launch Tennessee.

Arnold emphasized that both collaboration and "coopetition" with other groups locally, regionally and statewide are vital elements in the process by which UT Southern aims to build capacity for initiatives that will benefit not only its students, but also Giles County and the Southern Middle Tennessee region.

She added that UT Southern is already aware of specific opportunities to build programs and infrastructure sufficient to support increased engagement and connections with all constituencies.

UT's Randy Boyd

In a May 16 announcement of Arnold's hire, UT System President Randy Boyd said, "One of the most important responsibilities I have as president is hiring outstanding people to lead our campuses and institutes. Dr. Arnold is the right person at the right time to lead UT Southern. She brings energy, experience, and a deep commitment to student success. I’m confident she will be a transformative leader for the campus."

During the roughly 15 years before she arrived UT Southern, Arnold's posts included Texas A&M University-Texarkana, where she held several boundary-spanning roles in the offices of the university's provost and its president.

Within that same 15-year span, she held key roles at Montanta State University Billings, University of North Texas at Dallas and at East Texas A&M University.

At East Texas A&M she served as founding director of an Applied Criminology Program, for which she conceived, developed and implemented an 18-month, cohort-based online master's program for professionals in criminal justice.

At North Texas, she was executive director of the Caruth Police Institute, which supports "leadership training for law enforcement and criminal justice personnel and conducts applied research that supports best practices in policing and criminal justice," among other things. Since 2019, the Institute has been operated by Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute.

Five years before Arnold founded that program, she completed her doctorate in Criminal Justice and Corrections, at Rutgers University. Her undergrad studies were completed in 1994 at Northwestern University.

Arnold, 58, resides in Pulaski with her family. She was born in Huntington, N.Y. (Suffolk County) and was reared in Houston, Texas.

The former search committee for UT Chancellor Arnold:

• Donde Plowman, Search Committee Chair; Chancellor, UT Knoxville
• Evan Beech, Vice Chancellor for Advancement, UT Southern
• Charles Burk, Student Representative, UT Advisory Board
• Prentice Chandler, Provost & Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, UT Southern
• Angie Hall, Administrative Associate, UT Southern
• Doug Haney, UT Southern Advisory Board Member
• Stephen McBride, Director of Career Development, UT Southern
• Melissa Ryckman, Faculty Senate Chair & Associate Professor of English, UT Southern
• Donnie Smith, Member, UT Board of Trustees
• Ken Vickers, Professor of History, UT Southern
• Nan Wakefield, Chair, Johnston School of Business, UT Southern
• Carey Whitworth, VP Government Relations, Advocacy & Economic Development, UT System

Arnold succeeded former UT Southern Chancellor Linda C. Martin PhD, who is now executive vice president of the University of Tennessee System. VNC

.last edited 0624 5 August 2025