After two decades of dedicated leadership and service at East Tennessee State University, Dr. Randy Wykoff, the founding dean of the ETSU College of Public Health, has announced that he will retire at the end of the academic year.
As the longest-serving Dean of Public Health in the country, Dr. Wykoff has transformed ETSU’s College of Public Health into a nationally recognized leader. Under his guidance, the college became the first accredited College of Public Health in Tennessee and Central Appalachia, almost tripled its enrollment since 2006, and established research centers addressing the region’s most pressing health challenges.
During his tenure, the ETSU College of Public Health has secured more than $50 million in research funding and earned national recognition for teaching, research, and service. The ETSU College of Public Health is one of just four colleges to have won the Delta Omega Award for Innovative Curriculum multiple times and was the 2024 recipient of the Harrison C. Spencer Award for Outstanding Community Service.
Dr. Wykoff’s innovative leadership is reflected in initiatives like the award-winning Project EARTH curriculum at ETSU/Eastman Valleybrook. Building on this same spirit of creativity and commitment to public health, he guided the college’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, mobilizing ETSU’s expertise and resources to produce hundreds of educational videos, updates, and public service announcements to inform and protect the community.
In 2022, he was inducted into the Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame, and he has also been awarded the Surgeon General’s Medallion, the highest civilian award in the United States Public Health Service.
As Dr. Wykoff concludes this chapter of his career, we offer our gratitude for his leadership, service, and lasting impact on ETSU and the region.
His work will continue to make an impact through the programs he built, the partnerships he strengthened, and the many lives he influenced. We wish him all the best in a well-earned retirement and look forward to celebrating the contributions of ETSU’s own “Most Interesting Dean in the World” with the campus community.
Sincerely,
Dr. Brian Noland
President
Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs