University of Memphis building to be renamed Thursday after Oak Ridge resident

A celebration will be held Thursday morning, Oct. 19, to rename a large residence hall at the University of Memphis the Shirley C. Raines Centennial Place.

Raines, president emeritus of the University of Memphis and the university’s first woman president, has been a resident of Oak Ridge for the past 10 years. She served as the university president from July 1, 2001 to June 30, 2013.

To watch the event on Facebook Live, visit the University of Memphis Facebook page at 11 a.m. Eastern Thursday. The event will be held in Memphis at 10 a.m. Central.

The decision to rename the residence hall for students was announced in a proclamation issued by the state of Tennessee on May 30. The proclamation states, “We wish to extend our gratitude and recognition to Dr. Shirley C. Raines for her distinguished service to the University of Memphis and the Citizens of Tennessee.”

Raines, who was the 11th president of the University of Memphis, is a native of West Tennessee who grew up on a small farm in Bells.

She earned her Ed.D. and M.S. degrees in education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and her B.S. degree from UT Martin. She also completed the management development program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

After graduating from UT Martin, Raines worked as a kindergarten teacher for several years. Then she became the director of Knox County Head Start. She established the Community Child Center for Roane State Community College while she pursued her doctorate. Later, she taught education courses at various universities and accepted appointments as department head.

Before she won the position as president of the University of Memphis, Raines served as vice chancellor for academic services and dean of the College of Education at the University of Kentucky.

During her years as president of the University of Memphis, she oversaw the acquisition of Lambuth University, which was renamed the University of Memphis Lambuth Campus. She also established the University of Memphis Research Foundation and the Memphis Research Consortium.

Raines oversaw the construction of several new buildings and a campus redesign, including the development of the living-learning resident and curricular learning communities throughout the campus. She also accelerated the Honors program to set the foundation for the Helen Hardin Honors College and the Emerging Leaders Programs. She successfully launched and completed the institution’s first comprehensive fundraising campaign, Empowering the Dream, which raised $259 million.

Raines is the author of more than 20 books for leaders, children and early childhood and elementary teachers, as well as numerous scholarly journal articles. She is widely regarded as an expert in teacher education and early childhood education.

She is a frequent speaker at community events and has served as a keynote speaker at the Harvard University Institute for Educational Management and its Seminar for New Presidents and Chancellors.

A member of the Tennessee Women’s Hall of Fame, Raines was the first woman to serve as chair of the Memphis Area Chamber of Commerce. She is a past president of the Association for Childhood Education International and a former member of the Selection Committee for the National Teacher of the Year Award.

In Oak Ridge, she has served on the board of directors of the Emory Valley Center and the Roane State Community College Foundation.

This article originally appeared on Oakridger: University of Memphis building to be renamed after Oak Ridge resident