Mr. Leanders Burns

Director, Center for Teaching and Learning

Chattanooga State Community College

LeAnders Burns is a dynamic higher education leader with more than 20 years of experience in the community college setting. Burns focuses on student success and faculty development, with a track record of leading organizational change. Burns holds an MBA and serves as Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Chattanooga State Community College. In this role, Burns partners with faculty to strengthen instruction through course redesign and inclusive, evidence-based teaching. Burns also supports the thoughtful use of AI when it improves learning and fits the course context.

Since 2011, Burns has taught First-Year Experience courses as an adjunct instructor, which keeps the work closely connected to students' lived experience. With prior leadership roles in student support services, assessment, testing, and enrollment operations, Burns is known for clear, data-informed decision-making. Colleagues value Burns’s ability to bring departments together and move improvement efforts forward.