Amber Williams

Amber Williams leads student success and honors education at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Since joining UT in 2020, she has helped build a more personalized, strengths-based approach to supporting students. Her work focuses on helping students feel known, supported, and prepared to thrive in college and beyond.

Student success leadership

Williams has led several campuswide initiatives that connect academic preparation with belonging, well-being, and career readiness. She launched the New Vol Experience, a year-long onboarding journey for incoming students, and developed the Vol Success Teams model, which connects students with academic coaches, advisors, and retention specialists.

She has also expanded programs that help students gain experience, build confidence, and prepare for meaningful lives and careers. These include the Veterans Impact Program, Rocky Top Scholars, Vol Edge, and a redesigned University Honors experience focused on design thinking, problem-solving, and leadership.

Williams also helped align student success and honors priorities with the historic $130 million investment from Dee and Jimmy Haslam, the largest single gift in UT history. The investment in collaboration with the Haslam College of Business supports business honors, undergraduate coaching, and student success initiatives.

Williams is also helping shape UT’s new Student Success Center, scheduled to open in 2027. Designed to bring key support services together in one place, the center reflects UT’s commitment to making student success more coordinated, visible, and accessible.

Impact at UT

During Williams’s time at UT, the university has made significant gains in student outcomes, with first-year retention rising from 86.5 percent to 93.1 percent and the four-year graduation rate increasing from 56.7 percent to 71.4 percent. The university has also continued to strengthen career outcomes, honors education, veteran support, and global engagement.

Recent points of distinction include:

• Record first-year retention of 93.1 percent
• A record four-year graduation rate of 71.4 percent
• Student success and honors priorities supported through the $130 million Dee and Jimmy Haslam investment
• Positive career outcomes above 90 percent for six consecutive years
• Military Friendly® Gold Ranking for support of student veterans and military-connected students
• Fulbright Top Producing Institution recognition for eight consecutive years
• Top 10 national ranking for University Honors among public university honors programs by College Transitions
• National recognition from APLU and Gallup for UT’s student success work and strengths-based campus culture

National engagement

Williams is an author, keynote speaker, and national contributor on student flourishing, persistence, and belonging. Her work has been highlighted through several national platforms, including Gallup’s Leading With Strengths, Hallerin Hill’s Anything Is Possible, Inside Higher Ed, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She also co-authored an Inside Higher Ed op-ed with Chancellor Donde Plowman on the importance of strengthening student success in higher education.

Before joining UT, Williams served as a senior enrollment leader at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, where she helped enroll the largest and most academically accomplished first-year class in the university’s history and founded the Nebraska College Preparatory Academy.

Across her work, Williams focuses on removing barriers and building the conditions students need to grow with confidence, community, and purpose.

Education: Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Higher Education, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; M.S. in Leadership Education, University of Nebraska–Lincoln; B.S. in Communication Studies, University of Kansas.

CliftonStrengths: Relator, Arranger, Responsibility, Strategic, Ideation.