President Emeritus
Dr. Joseph DiPietro served as the 25th president of the University of Tennessee from 2011 to 2018. He is regarded as one of the University’s great leaders, and the UT Board of Trustees bestowed upon him the status of president emeritus upon his retirement.
During his tenure, he oversaw a record four years of low tuition increases, including a zero percent tuition increase this year for UT Knoxville and UT Chattanooga. In 2017, UT research achieved a record-high, system-wide $481 million in sponsored-program expenditures. The UT Foundation experienced a record fundraising year of more than $397 million given during the 2017-18 fiscal year. The record year of giving included the naming of two colleges at the UT Institute of Agriculture and UT Chattanooga, which join two other colleges named at UT Knoxville since 2014. The UT Institute of Agriculture and the Institute for Public Service had more than 5 million contacts with Tennesseans statewide.
Prior to becoming president, Dr. DiPietro served as chancellor of the UT Institute of Agriculture from 2006 to 2010. Under his leadership, the institute began interdisciplinary programs such as the Center for Renewable Carbon, the Tennessee Biofuels Initiative and the master’s degree in landscape architecture. Between 2006 and 2010, external grant support for the Institute of Agriculture increased 30% from $26.6 million to $34.8 million annually.
A veterinarian by training, Dr. DiPietro’s research emphasis was veterinary parasitology, and his clinical interest was equine field practice. He earned his bachelor’s, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, and master’s degrees at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After graduating from veterinary school, he joined a rural community practice in Peotone, Illinois, before returning to the University of Illinois faculty.
Before coming to UT, Dr. DiPietro served as dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Florida from 1997 to 2006. Prior to that, he rose to tenured professor of veterinary clinical medicine and veterinary pathobiology at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and held administrative positions there, including assistant director of the Agriculture Experiment Station and associate dean for research of the College of Veterinary Medicine.
Trust, Truth, Teams, and Mentorship
Dr. Joe DiPietro will share his journey and what he has learned along the way, from a horse-loving kid growing up in Central Illinois, to large animal clinician, veterinary researcher, dean, chancellor, and university president. He will characterize the qualities of veterinary training that equipped and helped him as a university administrator, explain how leadership development should be routine, and provide insights that will help you build or be part of a stronger team, increase career commitment, and produce greater organizational success.