Our Staff | SCCF

SCCF Staff

Tom Sanders, Executive Director

Tom Sanders has been working in institutional advancement since 1987, when he became a grant writer for the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business (now the Booth School of Business). He has served in a variety of capacities—publications manager, advancement writer, public relations officer, webmaster and web developer, developer of strategic programs, and grant writer—for Tusculum College, Holston United Methodist Home for Children, and, most recently, for the University of the South, where he has served for the better part of the last two decades.

Tom was born in nearby Lincoln County and has deep roots in Middle Tennessee. He is intimately familiar with the joys and challenges of rural life in the South. He lives with his wife Andrea—a professor at Chattanooga State Community College—in the Jumpoff community of Sewanee. He is an avid cyclist and enjoys repairing old bicycles and giving them to people who need them. He and Andrea are part of a kitchen table band, in which he plays mandolin and Andrea plays bass guitar. They have five children and two grandchildren.

Katie Goforth, Director of Community Development

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Born in Tennessee and raised in Colorado, as a child Katie spent most summers with her extended family in Grundy County, Tennessee. After earning a B.A. from the University of Colorado with dual majors in anthropology and geography, Katie made Tennessee her permanent home. She worked in the field of K-12 education for more than 20 years, along the way earning a master's degree in Elementary Education (Tennessee State University) and an Ed.S. in Educational Leadership (Tennessee Technological University). She then transitioned into the field of nonprofit grant management and went on to serve as director of South Cumberland Health Network and co-director of grants for Volunteer Behavioral Health. She is a member of numerous local and regional committees and boards in the fields of public health and education, including South Cumberland Health Network, Grundy County Health Council, Activ8 Grundy, Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth, and Friends of South Cumberland State Park.

After partnering with the South Cumberland Plateau AmeriCorps VISTA Project on many community outreach initiatives, Katie joined this program as VISTA manager in 2018. In July 2021 Katie accepted the job of Director of Community Development, a joint position shared by South Cumberland Community Fund and the University of the South’s Office of Civic Engagement. In her free time, Katie enjoys traveling, hiking, and walking her dogs along the scenic trails of the South Cumberland Plateau.