Minnie Miller
Minnie Miller, retired Director of Johnson County Schools, has a forty-two year career in education, fifty-six year marriage to the late Bob Miller, and often says if she had either of them to do over, she would do the same thing again. She graduated from Johnson County High School and earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees at East Tennessee State University. She spent twelve years teaching and thirty years in Supervision and Administration including six years as Director of Johnson County Schools before her retirement in 2006.
Past educational awards include Tennessee Instructional Supervisor of the Year, First District Regional Superintendent of the Year, State of Tennessee School Improvement Specialist, ETSU’s Distinguished Alumna in Education, and the Sequoyah Literacy Award. She was appointed by Governor Lamar Alexander and confirmed by the TN Legislature to serve on the State Committee for the Tennessee Career Ladder Program and appointed by the Governor to serve on a national task force created by the U.S. Secretary of Education to recommend improvements in American education. She started the Presidential Academic Excellence Awards in Johnson County, an annual award which honors academic excellence in Grades 6, 8, and 12.
Ms. Miller was instrumental in starting two funds with East Tennessee Foundation (ETF)—(1) Johnson County Community Foundation, a grant making fund for schools and non-profit organizations in Johnson County and (2) the Johnson County Education Growth Scholarship. She started the Johnson County Talent Show which showcases the talents of young people and financially supports the two ETF funds. She is active in the Positive Thinkers Club, the Johnson County Senior Center, and Johnson County’s Long Journey Home Committee, which celebrates the county’s rich musical heritage. She co-authored a book about 3 TN musicians including Clarence “Tom” Ashley, an outstanding Johnson County musician. She was selected by the Johnson County Chamber of Commerce for the 2016 “Mac Wright Citizen of the Year Award. Previously, she served on the Mountain States Foundation Board and presently serves on the Rural Health Consortium, Inc. Board of Directors.
She is an active member of First Baptist Church in Mountain City, Tennessee’s second oldest church, where she teaches an adult ladies Sunday School Class, Co-Chairs the CARE “A” Team, serves on the FBC Scholarship Committee, and is a member of the WMU and the Circle of Love. At present, she resides in her beloved Johnson County and continues to volunteer in many worthwhile activities.
Chancellor Donde Plowman
Chancellor Donde Plowman is the chief executive of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, the state’s flagship land-grant research university. The university’s footprint spans the entire state, including the UT Space Institute in Tullahoma and the UT Institute of Agriculture, which has Extension offices in all 95 counties. In her role as chancellor, Plowman oversees a campus budget of more than $2 billion as well as more than 38,800 students, 2,000 faculty, and 7,500 staff. The campus is made up of 910 acres with 294 buildings and offers more than 900 degree programs.
Since Plowman became chancellor in 2019, the university has strategically grown its enrollment by 34%, increased the retention of first-year students to a record 91.9%, and improved the four-year graduation rate to an all-time high of 74%. UT has also hit new records in fundraising. Research expenditures have grown by 40%, and the university has developed innovative partnerships with industry leaders like AT&T, Eastman, and Volkswagen.
Plowman has oversight of Tennessee Athletics, an operation exceeding $200 million to which she has provided swift and principled decision-making. She has ushered in new athletics administration that has revived the department with ethical leadership and a team-first culture that values excellence. UT finished third in the most recent Learfield Directors’ Cup, which ranks athletics departments based on their performance across all sports, and during the 2023-24 academic year every sport participated in post-season competition. Plowman is currently vice president of the Southeastern Conference Executive Committee and previously served a three-year term on the NCAA’s Presidential Forum.
Plowman was a Girl Scout Junior and Cadette in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. She attributes her lifelong interest in learning and achievement to all the hours she spent earning badges, which she proudly wore on her sash.
Dr. Edna Varner
Dr. Edna Varner is a Chattanooga native and a graduate of Chattanooga Public Schools. Growing up poor in the 1960s, she did not have access to Girl Scouting, but she fondly remembers receiving a Brownie uniform among the clothes a charitable acquaintance gave to her family of ten. She wore it until she outgrew it. This honor is especially meaningful to her because, with it, she officially becomes a Girl Scout, forever linked in a special way to millions of women whose lives have been shaped by the scouting experience.
The first in her family to attend college, Dr. Varner earned a bachelor’s degree from UTC and advanced degrees from UTC and Trevecca Nazarene University. In 2018, she earned a Doctorate in Administrative Leadership from Carson-Newman University after beginning her doctoral studies at Tennessee State University.
Over her 30-year career as an educator, Dr. Varner served on the founding faculty of the Chattanooga School for the Arts and Sciences and retired as principal of The Howard School. For eleven years, she was the Director of Leadership Development for the Cornerstone National Literacy Initiative before joining the Public Education Foundation, where she currently serves as a senior advisor and residency teacher coach. Twice, she represented PEF before the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, speaking on Hamilton County’s high school reform efforts (2006) and the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (2007).
Dr. Varner is a Leadership Chattanooga alumna, a Thrive Regional Partnership emerita, and a past president of the local chapters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, and The Links, Incorporated. She has served as board chair for the Community Foundation, Chattanooga Women’s Leadership Institute, Chattanooga State Foundation, Siskin Children’s Institute, Aim Center, UnifiEd, the Tennessee State Alumni Association, and United Way. Currently, she serves as board secretary for Chattanooga Girls Leadership Academy and Chattanooga Prep, board treasurer for ArtsBuild, and education chair for the NAACP. She is also a board member of the UC Foundation, the Sports Authority, Bible in the Schools, and the Ochs Center, as well as a commissioner and vice chair of the Chattanooga Housing Authority.
Her notable awards include Chattanooga State’s First in the Family, the Bessie Smith Center Living Legend Award, UTC’s Living Legend in Education Award, Delta of the Year, Woman of Distinction, the Alton Park Development Corp. Humanitarian of the Year Award, the CGLA Founders Award, Girls Incorporated’s Unbought and Unbossed Award, the National Coalition of 100 Black Women’s Pioneer Woman Award, and Chattanooga Business Elite’s Homage Award. She received the Kiwanis Distinguished Service Award in 2021, was named Tennessee Charter School Advocate of the Year in 2023, and in June 2025, she will become the 112th President of Chattanooga Rotary—the 12th largest Rotary Club in the nation.
Dr. Varner loves Chattanooga, where she is constantly surrounded by family, friends, and the thousands of children she has taught and mentored over her 30-year career. She attends Greater Pilgrim Baptist Church, where her brother is the pastor. When she is not working, she enjoys traveling—a passion ignited when she won a Lyndhurst Teacher’s Award, which funded a literary study tour of Europe. A little-known fact: Dr. Varner sang the opening song as Aunt Em in the Chattanooga Theatre Center’s production of The Wiz.
