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Lorna Norwood has been appointed the new Director of Marketing and Communications for the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. Download this image

(KNOXVILLE, Tenn.) – The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture has announced the appointment of Lorna Norwood as Director of Marketing and Communications.

Norwood will oversee a department that specializes in media relations, the production and distribution of print, web-based and broadcast materials, and graphic design. She will direct a staff of 11 people, and begins her new job Monday, Dec. 3, 2007.

“It’s an honor to join the UT Institute of Agriculture, which enjoys a wonderful reputation statewide and nationally, and to help build awareness of its many successful programs,” Norwood says. “I’m looking forward to working with the marketing staff, students, faculty and the administration at the Institute, System and Campus levels.”

Norwood joins UTIA from the office of Knox County Mayor Mike Ragsdale, where she served as Deputy Director in Communications from January 2006 to the present. She worked for Leadership Knoxville in 2005, and before that was a 20-year employee of UT. Norwood worked for the UT Medical Center from 1979 to 2003, eventually serving as the Director of Marketing for the hospital.

“Lorna comes to us with a world of experience and expertise,” says Dr. Joseph DiPietro, Vice President for Agriculture at UT. “Her professional accomplishments are outstanding, and we look forward to great things from her.”

The Institute of Agriculture has a statewide presence with more than 1,500 employees in all 95 counties. It includes UT Extension, the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, the College of Veterinary Medicine and the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

“Many people think only of farming when it comes to agriculture. It’s so much more than that,” Norwood says. “From food safety to the Biofuels Initiative to 4-H and the great work at the Vet School, agriculture impacts each one of us every day.”

Norwood says UTIA has some of the top professionals in the state and nation, and she looks forward to working with them. “With the Biofuels Initiative - which will help reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil - the expansion of the Veterinary School, research in hundreds of areas, and the outreach programs within Extension, the Institute has great stories that need to be told, and I’m honored to have been chosen to help tell those stories,” she says.

Norwood is a UT graduate with a bachelor’s degree in communications and a major in public relations and journalism. She is also a graduate of the UT Leadership Institute. She replaces Dr. Garvin Quinn who returned to his native state when he accepted a similar position at Oklahoma State University earlier this year.

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Contact:

Chuck Denney, UTIA Marketing and Communications, 865-974-7141