TTU System chancellor to speak at MSU Texas commencement
Texas Tech University System (TTU System) Chancellor Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D., will be the speaker for Midwestern State University’s (MSU Texas) December 2021 commencement. Approximately 430 December candidates and 120 August graduates will walk the stage at the 10 a.m. ceremony Saturday, Dec. 11, at Kay Yeager Coliseum.
MSU Texas became the fifth member institution of the TTU System on Sept. 1, 2021, following the 87th Texas legislative session.
Mitchell, who was named the fifth chancellor of the TTU System on Oct. 25, 2018, first joined the TTU System when he was named the eighth president of Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) on May 17, 2010. He held a dual appointment as chancellor and president for approximately one year until deciding to close his presidential tenure at TTUHSC in 2019.
Under Mitchell’s leadership, the TTU System received legislative support and approval to establish the Texas Tech University (TTU) School of Veterinary Medicine in Amarillo and the Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso. These achievements marked the state’s first veterinary school in more than a century and the first dental school in Texas in more than 50 years. The addition of these two schools makes the TTU System one of only nine in the nation to offer programs for undergraduate, medical, law, nursing, pharmacy, dental and veterinary education, among other academic areas.
Mitchell served as the longest-tenured president in the 52-year history of TTUHSC and led the institution to monumental milestones, record growth in enrollment, academic excellence and physical campus expansion.
Before his arrival at TTUHSC, Mitchell served as president and CEO of the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, an internationally recognized center of excellence in preventive and sports medicine. Mitchell earned a Bachelor of Science at Stephen F. Austin State University in 1983. He is an Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he earned his Doctor of Medicine in 1987, and, in 2012, he was honored as a distinguished alumnus of the Department of Internal Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Sports Medicine. From 1988 to 1996, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army Reserves (Medical Corps).
