Clarence L. Vaughn, III, is the Director of the Office of Access and Community Connections in the Haslam College of Business, at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. As director, Vaughn will provide strategic leadership in creating an integrated vision and shared responsibility for facilitating the college’s diversity goals and for fostering and supporting a campus culture that respects and appreciates individual differences. Through collaboration with offices across the college and university, he will advance diversity and inclusion in the university’s research and educational missions, creating a welcoming environment for students, faculty and staff.

His previous professional roles include serving as executive director of the police advisory and review committee for the City of Knoxville, director of diversity and inclusion for US Bank Corporation and several other management positions in the banking and credit industry. His community involvement includes serving as a board member at large for the National Association of Civilian Oversight for Law Enforcement, board treasurer for the United Way of Greater Knoxville and chair emeritus of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Commission, along with several other community organization boards.

Vaughn has achieved many honors and received recognition for his achievements. Among these are being a flagship program class member of Leadership Knoxville in 2020 and becoming a City of Knoxville ambassador and a practitioner of oversight certified by the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement, both in 2018. In 2017, he was recognized with inclusion on the Greater Knoxville Business Journal’s 40 under 40 Leaders list. Also in 2017, Vaughn graduated from the Citizens Academies of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Knox County District Attorney General’s Office and the Knoxville Police Department.

He holds an MBA in organizational management from Syracuse University, a bachelor’s in business management from Florida A&M and an associate’s in business management from Tallahassee Community College.