Darek Potter

Director, Oakley STEM Center

Tennessee Tech University

Darek W. Potter, Ph.D., P.E. has served as Director of the Oakley STEM Center at Tennessee Tech University since 2018. He earned a Master of Science in Civil Engineering from Vanderbilt University, Master of Arts degrees in STEM Education and Exercise Science from Tennessee Tech University, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Exceptional Learning with a concentration in Program Planning and Evaluation from Tennessee Tech University. Prior to joining Tennessee Tech, Dr. Potter spent more than 20 years as a professional engineer, during which he founded, grew, and successfully sold an engineering consulting firm in Pennsylvania with an annual operating budget exceeding $1 million. He has served as principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 20 externally funded grants, taught engineering courses at both Penn State and York College, and currently teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Research Methods and Quantitative Inquiry at Tennessee Tech. In addition to his higher education experience, Dr. Potter has more than six years of experience teaching high school science, mathematics, and engineering in rural school districts across Tennessee's Upper Cumberland region. His professional interests include STEM education, artificial intelligence, exercise science, and improving educational opportunities and outcomes for rural populations.