TCE Alumni Honored at Awards Gala

Three former students from the Tickle College of Engineering were among the 20 University of Tennessee alumni honored at the Alumni Awards Gala on September 13, 2024.

Michele Wise Wright, PhD (MS/ISE ’92)

Distinguished Alumni Award

Michele Wise Wright

Wright is the director of business development and outreach for the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE). Wright has earned accolades for commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, leading efforts to improve visibility and access for underrepresented communities, with features in national outlets, including USA Today, National Geographic, and SMPTE Motion Imaging Journal as the second person of color and first woman to grace the cover. 

Wright is founder, creator, and CEO of My Water Buddy and My Learning Buddy, award-winning edutainment platforms. She is co-founder, board chair, and senior executive director of the National Organization of African Americans with Cystic Fibrosis. She co-founded and co-chairs the annual Blacks, Indigenous, and Other Minority Ethnicities with Rare and Genetic Diseases Conference and created and led development of The Wright Cystic Fibrosis Screening Tool. 

A Tuskegee, Alabama, native, Wright earned her PhD in public policy, specializing in health and leadership policy, from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. She earned a master’s degree from UT Space Institute, where she chartered the National Society of Black Engineers as UT’s first GEM Fellow and first Black full-time student with a master’s in industrial engineering and concentration in engineering management. 

Paul Young (BS/EECS ’02)

Alumni Professional Achievement  

Paul Young

Young was sworn in as mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, on January 1, 2024. Growing up in the Oakhaven neighborhood, Young learned at an early age that there were two sides to Memphis—one ripe with opportunity and prosperity and another lacking resources and safe neighborhoods. Determined to bridge this divide, Young pursued a career focused on building a Memphis that works for every resident. 

Young earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from UT, followed by a master’s degree in urban and regional planning and a master’s degree of business administration from the University of Memphis. 

As the president of the Downtown Memphis Commission and the former Director of Housing and Community Development for the City of Memphis Division of Housing and Community Development, Young applied a holistic approach to unifying the city through public and private partnerships and targeted investments for the future. 

Nathan Irwin (BS/ISE ’14)

Alumni Promise Award

Nathan Irwin

Irwin serves as chief operating officer at North Knoxville Medical Center, where he leads a dynamic effort to improve operational efficiencies among a variety of service settings to enhance the delivery of care in Northern Knox County and beyond. North Knoxville Medical Center is a 172-bed acute care hospital that treats on average about 40,000 patients per year in its emergency room and excels in the treatment of medical, surgical, and oncological patients. 

Irwin was named CEO for two hospitals before the age of 35. He worked to improve access to women’s imaging services as CEO of Tennova Cleveland in Cleveland, Tennessee, and oversaw the construction and opening of a $20 million,12-bed freestanding emergency center in Fredericksburg, Virginia as CEO of HCA Healthcare’s Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center. 

Irwin remains actively involved on Rocky Top, serving as a mentor for students from UT’s Heath Integrated Business and Engineering Program. 

Contact 

Rhiannon Potkey (865-974-0683, [email protected]