Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D.

Tedd L. Mitchell, M.D., was named the fifth Chancellor of the Texas Tech University System (TTU System) on Oct. 25, 2018.

As Chancellor, Mitchell is the CEO of a five-university higher education enterprise with an operating budget of more than $3 billion. The TTU System consists of Texas Tech University (TTU), Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC), Angelo State University (ASU), Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso (TTUHSC El Paso) and Midwestern State University (MSU Texas).

Collectively, the TTU System employs approximately 21,000 people and has more than 64,000 students and 400,000 alums. With a statewide economic impact of $19.2 billion and an endowment valued at $3 billion, the TTU System has grown tremendously in its short history and is nationally acclaimed, operating at 20 academic locations in 15 Texas cities and one international city, San Jose, Costa Rica.

Mitchell works collaboratively with the TTU System Board of Regents, the TTU System Administration and university presidents to enhance the System’s profile and support shared missions of advancing higher education, health care, research and community outreach. He also guides the TTU System’s engagement with elected officials in Austin and federal leaders in Washington, D.C. During his tenure, the System and its universities have achieved significant and consistent success in securing critical legislative funding and support.

In 2025, Mitchell led the System to monumental success during the 89th Texas legislative session, which brought increases in formula funding, financial aid and grant funding for the System’s institutions, including support for graduate medical education, campus infrastructure and information technology. Additionally, each component of the System received new or enhanced support for initiatives focused on its strengths, providing a pathway forward for programs that will have a meaningful impact on the people and communities they serve.

Similar success was achieved in 2023 during the 88th Texas Legislature, when the System’s five component universities received significant funding to support strategic institutional initiatives. This investment from the state incorporated nearly $130 million dedicated to exceptional items across the System, including the establishment of the Texas University Fund (TUF). With an initial investment of more than $3 billion, the TUF supports research institutions, including TTU (which received an initial distribution of $44 million), the University of Houston, the University of North Texas and Texas State University.

In 2022, Mitchell was named a finalist for The Dallas Morning News (DMN) Texan of the Year. Among the 12 finalists selected, DMN recognized him for leading efforts to establish the Hunt School of Dental Medicine at TTUHSC El Paso – the state’s first dental school in over half a century – and the TTU School of Veterinary Medicine in Amarillo – the state’s first veterinary school in more than 100 years. Both programs completed their first academic year in spring 2022, a feat the DMN touted as getting rural Texans on the radar of the state legislators in Austin and a mission to boost health care and agriculture in small towns across Texas.

Mitchell was also instrumental in securing the System’s partnership with MSU Texas, which officially joined as the fifth member institution of the TTU System on Sept. 1, 2021, following the 87th Texas legislative session when Gov. Greg Abbott authorized House Bill 1522. With the addition of the dental and medical schools and MSU Texas, TTU System became one of only nine in the nation to offer programs for undergraduate, medical, law, nursing, pharmacy, dental and veterinary education, among other academic areas.

While leading the TTU System Administration, Mitchell has implemented a values-based culture where all employees have embarked on a journey together to identify and establish a set of commonly shared values: People First, Integrity, Community, Exemplary Service and Resilience.

Mitchell first joined the TTU System as the eighth President of TTUHSC on May 17, 2010. He held a dual appointment as Chancellor and President from 2018 to 2019, until deciding to close his presidency after nearly a decade at the helm of TTUHSC. He is the longest-tenured president in the university’s 52-year history and led the institution to monumental milestones, including record growth in enrollment, academic excellence and physical campus expansion.

During Mitchell’s tenure as President, TTUHSC and its leadership spearheaded the university’s first fundraising campaign, a $100 million initiative. In 2013, Mitchell helped transform TTUHSC’s regional site in El Paso into a standalone university and the System’s fourth institution, TTUHSC El Paso. It was at TTUHSC that he laid the foundation for creating values-based cultures – efforts that would have a systemwide impact once he became Chancellor.

Before arriving at TTUHSC, Mitchell served as President and CEO of the Cooper Clinic in Dallas, an internationally recognized center of excellence in preventive and sports medicine. He earned a Bachelor of Science at Stephen F. Austin State University in 1983. He is an Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Texas Medical Branch, where he received his Doctor of Medicine in 1987. In 2012, he was honored as a distinguished alumnus of the Department of Internal Medicine. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Sports Medicine. From 1988 to 1996, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army Reserves (Medical Corps).

His research interest focuses on the effects of activity and lifestyle on health. He has authored or co-authored dozens of scientific papers, abstracts and book chapters. He is also a frequent lecturer, nationally and internationally, on the physiology of exercise and the effects of exercise on aging, fitness and overall quality of life. In 2002, Mitchell was appointed by President George W. Bush to the President’s Council for Physical Fitness and Sports and served until 2009.

As health editor and a weekly columnist for USA Weekend from 1998 to 2010, Mitchell published more than 600 articles. He received the 2006 Clarion Award and the 2008 Walter C. Alvarez Award for Excellence in Medical Communication from the American Medical Writers Association. His writing led to collaborative efforts with other health experts, culminating in the publication of the books “Fit to Lead,” “Move Yourself” and “Fit to Lead II.”

Mitchell is married to Janet Tornelli-Mitchell, M.D. They met in medical school and practiced together for nearly two decades. As First Lady, Tornelli-Mitchell leads a health and wellness initiative offered to TTU System employees through the Employees Retirement System of Texas benefits program, improving the health and lives of System employees and their families.

The Mitchells have three children: Katherine Schwartz, an assistant district attorney in Dallas; Charlie, a petroleum engineer and TTU and Harvard alumnus; and Chris, a TTU and Villanova alumnus who is pursuing a career in the U.S. Army. They have four grandchildren – Isabelle Grace, Cooper Benjamin, Luisa Blake and Charlotte Elizabeth – with another on the way.