Tombras School Alumni Lee and Erin Freeman Celebrate Their Love After Meeting at UT Over Two Decades Ago
Lee (’02, ’15) and Erin (’02) Freeman did not meet one another until their final year at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, but they had similar reasons why they wanted to attend UT —game days on Rocky Top. They first met in an advertising class before both graduated from the Tombras School of Advertising and Public Relations. The two share a love of people, UT, and each other.
“Both Lee and I graduated in four and a half years. Not for academic reasons. I personally conned my parents into having me stay another semester at UT simply because I wanted another football season,” Erin said.
While they came for the Vols, both Freemans left with an education that helped them climb the ranks of their respective fields. After graduating from the Tombras School, Lee pursued a career in sales and marketing before obtaining an MBA from the Haslam College of Business in 2015. Erin is now the senior vice president at Ackermann Marketing & PR while Lee is the chief executive officer at Sertoma, an organization that helps those with intellectual and developmental disabilities find employment, housing, and community.
Erin comes from a long line of Volunteers. She grew up watching UT football games and hearing about the many opportunities the university had to offer. UT was the only school she had in mind after graduating high school.
Lee, on the other hand, didn’t know where he wanted to go to school until his dad took him to his first UT football game. He grew up in the small towns of Savannah and Elizabethton, Tennessee, but didn’t step foot onto UT’s campus until he was in his early teens.
“I was in junior high and Heath Shuler was the quarterback then. I just remember being there, and there were a hundred and some thousand people all the same age or similar in age, all in love with this university. I was just in awe of it and I just thought, you know, hey, I can go to a university that has 25,000 people. That’s twice the size of my hometown and what opportunities could be there,” Lee explained.
Their first year was a great one for UT football.
Erin said, “Our freshman year was 1998, which was a wonderful year for many reasons, one being that we won the national championship, that’s our claim to fame. I really, truly enjoyed my time at UT.”
The Haslam College of Business would be where the two would have their first interaction.
“I remember where I met Erin. I was in Teddy Armbristor’s marketing class. It was a very tough class and there was this beautiful girl in the row in front of me,” Lee said.
Lee had a group project in another class where their assignment was to create an advertising campaign for Mike’s Hard Lemonade. Luckily for him, one of his group members was Erin’s best friends and roommate.
“We chose Erin as one of our models,” he said. “After finishing our campaign for Mike’s Hard Lemonade, we as a group—our campaign class—decided to go have a drink and enjoy ourselves.”
“He purchased me a Mike’s Hard Lemonade and sat that down in front of me because it went along with the theme of their advertising campaign,” Erin said.
From that point on, the two were inseparable.
With graduation fast approaching, the two were thinking about life after college and what that would look like together and apart.
“At that time, advertising was the cool thing. It was people who wanted to go live in New York City and work for these large firms. They were just making hand over fist in terms of money but it didn’t end up that way for me,” Lee said. “I ended up interning for a couple of semesters and just did not see a fit anywhere. Erin and I had a blossoming relationship. I felt like this is the one, and soon after I graduated, I looked at opportunities in Atlanta, Nashville, and Knoxville. I applied for a job with a company called Maxim Healthcare. They provide 24/7 staffing for nurses and therapists within the hospitals and acute care space. I was offered that job in Atlanta and turned it down because I didn’t want to leave Erin.”
The company ended up hiring Lee for an opening in its Knoxville office. While Lee was working for Maxim Healthcare, Erin started her career at Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation, now known as Visit Knoxville. The two married in September 2005.
“On an off-weekend for UT football,” Erin adds.
Erin has been working in the public relations industry since graduating at UT, which eventually led her to her current position at Ackermann Marketing and Public Relations.
Erin said, “The doors had opened for me in terms of a skill set and the connections that I made with the media and the reputation that I was able to build. The trust that I was able to build with the media allowed me the opportunity to eventually be where I am now at Ackermann Marketing and PR. I have been there, I think it’s going to be 12 years in April.”
While Erin has now been with the company since 2011, Lee has a personal connection to his current job at Sertoma as one of his friends experienced a life-altering situation.
“My best friend from Elizabethton was unfortunately a statistic that became someone with a developmental disability because of a catastrophic event. He graduated from West Point. He then went to Hilton Head to have a vacation to celebrate right before going to ranger school and on the way back to Annapolis, Maryland, he hydroplaned and hit a tree. It had a bearing on me and it seemed like this job meant more than a job,” he said. “Now, I get to hang out with people that absolutely love just being alive even though they’re in a wheelchair for the rest of their years, the rest of their days, and it’s beautiful.”
Lee and Erin not only give back to the community through their work, but they’ve also been donors to the university.
Erin said, “It’s important to give back so that stories, like the one that we’re telling, those stories can continue. The legacy of being a Tennessee Vol is so incredibly important, and we always want to be part of giving back to that legacy.”
The two still love to spend their weekends in the fall at Neyland Stadium, but now it’s with their soon to be ten-year-old son, John Clark. They hope he will one day follow in their footsteps.
Lee said, “That choice that I made back in 1998 led me here and hopefully one day, our little boy will choose UT. I mean, he is already a tried and true Volunteer.”
Lee and Erin had two very different career paths but say it’s the relationships they built along the way that helped them get to where they are.
Lee said, “Finding someone that you can confide in, in terms of understanding your struggles and your challenges and knowing that whatever you’re probably going through, someone else has gone through it. Let’s work together to get it done rather than going into it alone. I think doing that helps build confidence, but also keeps that humility.”
Tombras School Alumni Lee and Erin Freeman Celebrate Their Love After Meeting at UT Over Two Decades Ago written by Hillary Tune and originally published on the College of Communication & Information site.