About me
Suzanne Mitchell was born in Tullahoma, TN. She was raised in the Capitol Hill community and attended Townsend, Rock Creek, Decherd, North Junior High, and graduated in 1992 from Franklin County High School.
From aptitude tests and science projects in middle school, Suzanne thought she would pursue engineering. However, a summer job at a local nursing home changed her path. After graduation, Suzanne attended TN Tech University to pursue a degree in Nursing. It was during this time she met her future husband, Jimmy Mitchell. When the time came to apply to nursing school, Suzanne applied to multiple programs because she was very aware of the requirements and the competition. The first acceptance letter came from ETSU with a Kellogg Grant to reopen a local hospital in Mountain City. Things moved quickly with a mandatory Maymester and repeating Physiology. By the end of the summer, another acceptance letter arrived, this one was from Belmont University. Suzanne decided the learning opportunities available in Nashville would be beneficial, so she moved to Antioch and completed her Bachelor of Science in Nursing in December of 1996.
In Jan 1997, Suzanne and her husband moved back to Franklin County and she was hired at STRHS in the Intensive Care Unit. For seven years, Suzanne worked nights in the ICU, but after having her second child, a change in schedule was much needed. Ironically at this time, a new high school was being built in Franklin County and a second Health Science Teacher was needed. When considering this career change, there were many conflicting feelings about abandoning the nursing profession, her patients, and her community. While she had much passion for patient care, admiration, and respect for her coworkers, her devotion was to her family. As she began to collect documents for her interview, she ran across her college exit paper. This paper allowed her to realize that through the teaching profession, she could still meet the personal goals written in that exit essay. She realized she was not deserting the nursing profession but finding a different pathway to meet the goal of striving for a healthier community. What better way to build a healthier community than by teaching the younger generations? While this opportunity was a better fit, it required her to return to college with children ages two-year-old and a five-year-old. This job was very rewarding both professionally and personally. It allowed for a schedule the same as her family and allowed her to be a Sunday school teacher, team mom of sports teams, and keep books at baseball games, and basketball games. In 2012 she and her husband began keeping stats for Franklin County High School football. As a teacher, she was able to provide students with experiences through field trips, community service projects, clinical internships, and guest speakers. Together with Diana Spaulding and Rita Sliger a $250,000 grant was obtained for the Health Science Department that allowed FCHS to provide the health science students at FCHS a hospital skills lab, and the Nursing Education class which led to the CNA industry certification. As a HOSA advisor, she took students to the regional and state competition yearly and had students compete nationally in Texas, California, Tennessee, and Florida. With the help of the FFA advisor, the Parli Pro team placed 4th in the Nation. The years 2019- 2021 brought about many opportunities, but many challenges. In 2019 with a second child preparing to start college, she decided to return to nursing part-time. In the summer of 2020, she began a one-year Master’s program with TSU in Administrative Leadership, In Spring 2021 she was named Interim Career Technical Education Director and became the Career Technical Director in the fall of 2021. The opening of Winchester TCAT allowed the Franklin County School District to partner with TCAT to assist in building a seamless pipeline for skilled workers. Suzanne collaborated with TCAT, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Industrial Roundtable to reinstate Career Fairs, Industry tours, and work-based learning.
Suzanne’s current role as Career and Technical Director has strengthened her community ties. She currently serves her community as a board member on the local Chamber of Commerce and as Honorary Commander at Arnold Air Force Base. Suzanne is excited to continue to work with the school system, post-secondary, and industry to provide students with the experiences to help them build their careers.
