GREENEVILLE – An accomplished educator, consultant and leader in corporate training with about 30 years of experience in East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia has been named assistant dean of the Business Division at Tusculum University.

David Hite
David Hite will oversee all of the academic programs and faculty members that fall within the division on the bachelor’s, master’s and associate levels. He will also collaborate with fellow assistant deans in other programs as they relate to interdisciplinary courses and other opportunities for students at Tusculum.
“We are impressed with the diversity of David’s career, which has incorporated considerable time in the academic space and excellent work in the corporate world and as a private businessman,” said Dr. David Cook, Tusculum’s provost and vice president of academic affairs. “He has also established connections with many leading companies in the region that will prove beneficial for our students and the university. We are excited to see how God uses David to serve our students and community and look forward to watching him take our business program to the next level of success.”
Hite’s academic career includes service for four years as business programs department chair and six years as an assistant professor at Bluefield University in Bluefield Virginia. His achievements included developing entrepreneur programs and community educational partnerships between students, businesses, community organizations and local governments.
He also served as an instructor and program manager for 10 years, part time and full time, at Virginia Intermont College. One component of his job was to support community and small business initiatives such as organizational assessment and development, employee effectiveness, training and productivity technologies. During this time, he also served as an adjunct faculty member at East Tennessee State University and Northeast State Community College.
Early in his career, Hite was an e-learning instructional technology specialist at the University of Tennessee. That role gave him the opportunity to work with faculty and staff teams to design and develop one of the first online degrees in human resources in the state. During that time, he worked with the Tennessee Valley Authority for five years in corporate training assessment and evaluation and with Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport for six years in organizational learning and human resources.
Throughout his academic career, he was a training and development consultant for many years with HR OnCall in Morristown and worked on projects with organizations such as Volkswagen Group of America, Y-12 National Security Complex, Electro-Mechanical Corporation and the University of Virginia Technology Development Center.
“As we prepare our business students to be career-ready professionals, they will benefit from David’s leadership,” said Dr. Heather Henson-Ramsey, assistant vice president of academic affairs. “His practical experience working with government agencies, Fortune 500 companies and other businesses, combined with his academic background, will be extremely valuable for his students and our faculty. David is an excellent fit for our active and experiential approach to educating our students.”
Hite has conducted numerous presentations, workshops and speeches all over the United States as well as studied business in more than 30 countries. Hite grew up in East Tennessee but tells students, “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Studying abroad was the experience that boosted his career and confidence in life. He hopes to expand the education of students in his division beyond the classroom and involve them in international business programs as well as projects that increase their global business skills.
Tusculum offers a business administration program on the undergraduate level, with majors available in accounting, economics, entrepreneurship, management and digital marketing. Students can also pursue a general business administration major. On the graduate side, Tusculum provides a Master of Business Administration with concentrations in consulting and organizational analysis, entrepreneurship and leadership.
Besides teaching students, the business program has served the community with great success by participating in the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program. Students and community volunteers under the supervision of Dr. Harold Branstrator, associate professor of management, prepare free income tax returns for qualified individuals. Tusculum is entering its ninth year in the program and last year prepared a record 1,017 returns.
“I am thrilled to advance to the next stage of my career and am grateful to Dr. Cook and Dr. Henson-Ramsey for entrusting me with the leadership of Tusculum’s business programs,” Hite said. “Tusculum has an outstanding faculty, impressive students and alumni who are putting their degrees to great use to impact their communities. Working together, our business faculty, administration and I will ensure our students continue to receive an outstanding education, rooted in civic engagement, that will lead to productive careers that fulfill their purpose and calling.”
Hite has a bachelor’s degree in human resource development and workforce training and a master’s degree in human resource development, both from UT. He is expected to graduate soon from The George Washington University with a doctorate in organizational learning and leadership.
Additional information about the university’s bachelor’s program in business administration is available at https://site.tusculum.edu/bachelor-of-science-in-business-administration-2/. People can access further information about the MBA at https://site.tusculum.edu/master-of-business-administration/. To learn more about the university, please visit www.tusculum.edu.