Stearns Will Serve as the Marketing and Membership Chair
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Lisa Stearns, vice chancellor of marketing and communications at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture, has been elected to the board of directors of the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE), an international professional development and networking organization for faculty and communications professionals who extend knowledge about agriculture, natural resources, and life and human sciences. Stearns will serve as the ACE marketing and membership director, supporting faculty and staff at public and land-grant universities throughout the United States and in similar institutions in other nations.
“I am honored to serve with an organization that promotes the profession of marketing and communications with the purpose of advancing agriculture and its importance to our lives,” says Stearns. “ACE and its members are some of the best agricultural communicators in the world and I am excited about the opportunity to represent the University of Tennessee and to serve along with my fellow board members.”
ACE members include strategists, content creators, writers, editors, graphic designers, webmasters, video producers, information technologists, photographers, administrators, researchers, faculty members and others in the communications field. The mission is to effectively distribute research-based information to scientists and technicians, and practical, problem-solving information to people who put it to work: farmers, families, foresters, food processors, ranchers, homeowners, news media, youth, businesses and many others.
Stearns will serve on the 2025–26 board with ten other directors from universities across the country. She, along with numerous team members from UTIA’s Office of Marketing and Communications, have served or currently serve on committees, as well as have conducted seminars as part of ACE’s annual international conference, which will take place this year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in June. To learn more about ACE, visit aceweb.org.
The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is comprised of the Herbert College of Agriculture, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT AgResearch and UT Extension. Through its land-grant mission of teaching, research and outreach, the Institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. to Tennesseans and beyond. utia.tennessee.edu.