ANGELA WEGNER
DIRECTOR
As director of the Center for Literacy, Education, and Employment (CLEE), Angela oversees operations, strategy, and growth of the center, and is dedicated to driving improvements in education and workforce development.
Before joining CLEE, Angela served as senior director of special education strategy at the Tennessee Department of Education, where she designed and implemented state-level strategies to improve outcomes for students with disabilities. Throughout her career, Angela has held diverse leadership roles, including classroom teacher, mentor, instructional coach, and elementary school principal.
During her leisure time, Angela cherishes moments spent with her family. Exploring the outdoors, traveling, and experimenting with new recipes are some of her favorite ways to unwind and recharge.
DAVID FIELDS
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR
David joined CLEE in 2005 as part of the Adult Education Team, taking a hiatus in 2008 to work as the Director of Development at WMMT, a community radio station and project of Appalshop, Inc., and later as the Regulations Compliance Manager and Trade Show Manager for Intersign Corporation. David rejoined CLEE in 2014, as a Lead Program Manager for the Center’s Teaching All Students (TAS) Initiative Team and the Event Team, managing the TAS Cohort trainings, the Partners in Education Conference and the Coordinated School Health Institute. David was promoted to CLEE’s Management Team as Associate Director in 2022.
Kelsey Marcengill
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Kelsey joined the Center in 2016 as a member of the Event Team. She has been managing events for almost 15 years and brings experience, enthusiasm, and creativity to the team. Her background includes working as an Event Manager at the Knoxville Convention Center where she coordinated over sixty-five events a year and working at a local historic venue as the wedding/event coordinator where she managed over twenty weddings per year. Kelsey earned a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration from Presbyterian College as well as minors in history and art history. In her spare time, she enjoys baking, reading, gardening, and horseback riding.
Sam Bishop
SENIOR EVENT MANAGER
Sam graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University in 2015 with a BS degree in Resort and Hospitality Management and joined UT CLEE in 2018 as a Project Manager on the event planning team. Prior to joining CLEE, Sam was a Lifestyle Director for a Del Webb Community in South Florida, managing over 20 events a month.
In her spare time, Sam owns her own wedding planning and coordination business, East Tennessee Weddings and Events. When not working, she enjoys being outside, traveling and spending time with friends, family and her pets.
CRYSTAL BISHOP
PROGRAM COORDINATOR/TRAINING ADMINISTRATOR
With over 15 years’ experience at UT CLEE, Crystal’s role as a Training Administrator is to support educators in Tennessee and all students of different abilities. She enthusiastically promotes empowerment through self-determination and self-advocacy to assist in the transition from school to adult life. Her work is instrumental in the development of setting students up for a path of success after their high school education.
Before joining the Center staff, Crystal was an Education Director for a nationally recognized after-school and summer youth-oriented organization and now uses that experience giving both teachers and youth the tools they need to make the best choices for their future.
AARON KOHRING
TRAINING COORDINATOR
Aaron is a Training Coordinator with UT CLEE and has also served as a research leader and professional development trainer since 1999. He has extensive experience with standards-based education and has specific content knowledge and experience in Adult Reading, Mathematics/Numeracy, Learning Disabilities (LD), and Workforce Development, working with various national and regional grants in these areas. Aaron has also served as the director for the Region 2 Professional Development Center in the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education’s (OCTAE) LINCS project, with training as a Learning to Achieve (LD) and Adult Numeracy Instruction (ANI) facilitator. Aaron’s previous teaching experience includes one-on-one tutoring, ABE, GED, and ESOL.
PAT WATSON
COMMUNICATIONS/MARKETING COORDINATOR/Exhibitor manager
Pat has worked at UT for over 30 years, and joined the Center in 2017 as the exhibitor manager for training events that CLEE facilitates for the TN Department of Education. He currently supports the Access for All Learning Network, the Teaching All Students program and the Project RAISE initiative with website editing, photography, videography, and image and video editing, and creating event registrations and mobile apps.
Pat has a passion for media production and has won multiple awards for his work. He has uses his talents to help bring his Knoxville based church’s message to millions across the world.
In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his best friend and his daughter, and nomadically traveling across the US in an RV.
