CCI Faculty Brittany Tarwater 2025 Volunteer 40 Under 40
From the moment Brittany Tarwater (‘09, ‘13) stepped into the College of Communication and Information to where she is today in her career, there’s been a network of supportive faculty pushing her to succeed. She didn’t realize when she arrived at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, campus on her 18th birthday that CCI and UT would become intertwined with her life and career for years to come. Now, she joins seven other CCI alumni as one of the class of 2025 Volunteer 40 Under 40.
Tarwater is a full-time assistant professor of practice at the School of Journalism and Media, teaching students in the same rooms where she once sat to earn an undergraduate degree in communication studies and a master’s degree with a concentration in journalism and media. She brings with her a wealth of experience in broadcast journalism and currently still works part-time as a multimedia journalist and anchor at WVLT News, where her work has earned multiple Emmy and Edward R. Murrow awards.
Tarwater arrived at UT focused on her swimming career but was also set on becoming a sports journalist after she graduated. She ultimately decided to get her major through the School of Communication Studies and to minor in journalism and media—while some of this decision was based on conflicts with her intense swimming schedule, it was also heavily influenced by a faculty member who has remained a pivotal person in Tarwater’s career over the years: Associate Professor John Haas, who was also director of the School of Communication Studies for 30 years.
“I distinctly remember being drawn in by Dr. Haas and him promising that he was going to support my career and if I had a dream and a goal, he was going to get me there,” she said. “John Haas is a wonderful person who has such a gift for connecting with young people and inspiring them in their journey, and I’m just lucky to be one of those people. What a gift to still be connected to him.”
Just as she planned, Tarwater graduated and started a job as a sideline reporter, traveling to a different city each week. While it was an exciting job it also came with the awareness that sports journalism wasn’t the fulfilling career she wanted.
“There was something that drew me more into other elements of news; I didn’t know what that quite looked like as I was singularly focused on sports reporting. The door was not even cracked for anything else. Deciding sports reporting was not for me when I was in it was a bit of a shocking revelation,” she recalled.
After about two years in the field, Tarwater returned to the familiar halls of CCI to grow her journalism skill set so she could pivot to covering news. There, she flourished and credits her graduate advisor, Professor Emeritus Sam Swan, with carrying her through the program and each of the subsequent career moves she has made up until this day.
She graduated from the program and began her broadcast news career in Hazard, Kentucky, feeling a little self-conscious about being one of the older journalists in the newsroom. But she stuck with it and broadened her experience in broadcast newsrooms, and it wasn’t long before she once again felt the pull of Knoxville, Tennessee.
She landed a job at WVLT News in 2015 and began teaching courses as a lecturer for the School of Journalism and Media in 2019. In spring 2024 she began as a full-time faculty with the school, bringing her journey full circle and solidifying the strong connection she feels to CCI. It’s been a year since she made the transition to full-time teaching, but time flew as she immersed herself in instructing television and news production courses as well as taking on the advisor role for The Volunteer Channel.
“It’s been good, it’s just interesting how you close the loop on some of these themes that have all happened in this same building. As an undergraduate student and then a graduate student, and now as faculty I feel quite frankly a little bit of impostor syndrome,” she said. “I’ve joined in where there are people on this faculty who are just outstanding educators, who are brilliant in their career and their studies, and I’ve learned so much from all of them. And again, it’s the people around me who have buoyed me up and made sure I’ve succeeded.”
Tarwater has found inspiration not just from her fellow faculty, but from the students themselves. Their professionalism and boundless energy have resulted in projects such as a live Election Day special, among many other high-quality journalism endeavors.
“I’m still working in a newsroom—they are so dedicated. They were running breaking news stories during the winter break when they were off, that’s how they’re wired. They are so outstanding and dedicated and so smart,” she said.
She also sees this experience as an opportunity to offer the same kind of support that was given to her as a student and a working professional. Though she learned plenty during her courses, it was knowing she had people to call on for advice or help that has had the biggest impact on her.
“I was not the most engaging or the best student and I regret that, I wish that I was, but maybe I didn’t have the maturity at that time to know where I was lacking. There were so many people who picked me up and uplifted me and poured into me anyway, and I’m so grateful to those people. And I see that more and more as the time passes and I become more grateful to the people who gave me more than I deserved,” she said.
When she’s not at CCI or WVLT, Tarwater spends time with her two children and her husband, Knoxville native and Olympic gold medalist Davis Tarwater, and gives back to her community through volunteering. She remains passionate and involved with causes she’s long supported including YWCA Knoxville and the Tennessee Valley Keys of Hope Women’s Program. She is also a board member for the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame.
CCI Faculty Brittany Tarwater 2025 Volunteer 40 Under 40 written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.