Associate Vice Provost and Executive Director
Biography
Dr. Pat Akos serves as Associate Vice Provost for Student Success and Executive Director of University Honors at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He also provides executive oversight of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships and holds a professorial appointment in the College of Education, Health, and Human Sciences.
With more than three decades of leadership experience spanning K–12 education, clinical mental health counseling, higher education, and national professional organizations, Dr. Akos has built a career centered on student success, talent development, and institutional transformation. Prior to joining Tennessee, he served for more than twenty years as a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His scholarship, grounded in strengths-based and humanistic approaches, has shaped research and practice in counseling, career development, educational transitions, and student thriving. He is the author of more than 100 scholarly publications, including more than 80 refereed journal articles and two books, and was identified among the top 5% of contributors to the counseling research literature over an eighteen-year period. His work has been recognized through national awards, editorial board appointments, invited keynote addresses, and service on prominent professional boards and councils.
Since arriving at the University of Tennessee, Dr. Akos has led a period of significant growth and national distinction. Under his leadership, University Honors advanced from the mid-30s nationally to #8 among public university honors programs, according to College Transitions, a ranking that evaluates academic selectivity, student benefits, curricular rigor, and honors outcomes. That rise reflects a comprehensive reimagining of honors at Tennessee: a new interdisciplinary curriculum focused on complex problem solving and leadership, expanded partnerships across the university’s colleges, strengthened student support systems, and a bold vision for honors as both elite and accessible.
Dr. Akos has also helped elevate undergraduate research and fellowship success at Tennessee. During his leadership, the Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships has sustained UT’s distinction as a Fulbright Top Producing Institution for eight consecutive years while supporting students who have earned nationally competitive awards, including the Churchill Scholarship, Boren Awards, Goldwater Scholarships, NSF Graduate Research Fellowships, Truman, and other prestigious honors. These achievements reflect a commitment to developing talent at scale and ensuring that students from a public flagship university can compete successfully on the national and global stage.
Across every role, Dr. Akos is guided by the belief that higher education should cultivate both excellence and opportunity. His leadership continues to position the University of Tennessee as a national model for innovative honors education, undergraduate achievement, and student success.
Clifton Strengths: Relator, Maximizer, Ideation, Individualization, Futuristic