Dr. Cathy Cole, deputy executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, worked as media liaison and helped to coordinate the search process for the UT presidency, which resulted in the election of Dr. John Shumaker. Following Shumaker’s election by the board of trustees, she worked with his transition from the University of Louisville to UT and was appointed acting executive assistant to President Shumaker in August 2002. In January 2003 the board of trustees confirmed her permanent appointment as Shumaker’s executive assistant.
Cole, a native of Paris, Tennessee, earned the bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Murray State University and the doctorate in higher education administration and finance from Southern Illinois University. Prior to employment with THEC, where she concentrated on public affairs and technology, she worked with the Kentucky and Louisiana departments of higher education coordinating boards in the areas of finance, government relations, public relations, and statewide policy development. She also served as assistant to the president at Murray State from 1984 to 1987.
Interim President Joe Johnson eliminated her position—then chief of staff—on September 11, 2003. At the time of her departure, her salary was $120,000. She was allowed to use her accumulated annual leave for which she was paid in accord with UT policy and state law, and she also received up to three months’ pay if she had not accepted a position elsewhere. On December 17, 2003, the Fiscal Review Committee of the Tennessee state legislature recommended to Davidson County District Attorney General Victor Johnson that perjury charges be filed against her. Cole gave testimony on September 4, 2003, to the committee concerning her involvement in the selection process of John Shumaker as UT president, telling the committee that she had little to do with the selection of Shumaker. But when she gave testimony in Shumaker’s Kentucky divorce proceedings, she said she worked on that on a daily basis, sometimes on an hourly basis. General Johnson announced in February 2004 that Cole would not be charged with perjury since the attorney general’s investigation found no intent to deceive or to provide willfully corrupt false statements.