Theresa K. Lee is currently Senior Vice President and Chief Legal and Administrative Officer for Eastman Chemical Company.

She graduated from East Tennessee State University with a B.S. degree in political science and history. She received her doctor of jurisprudence degree in 1977 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1999.

Lee joined Eastman in 1987 as an attorney in the Legal Department. She was appointed Assistant to the President, Eastman Chemical Company in 1991. She was named Assistant Secretary and Senior Counsel, Texas Eastman Division in 1992; was appointed Assistant Secretary and Assistant General Counsel, Legal Department, Health, Safety and Environmental Group in 1993; was named Assistant Secretary and Assistant General Counsel, Legal Department, Corporate Group in 1995; was appointed Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Secretary in 1997; became Vice President, General Counsel, and Corporate Secretary in 2000. In January 2002, she became Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary. She assumed her current position in January 2011.

Before joining Eastman, Lee served from 1977 to 1979 as staff attorney for Legal Services of Upper East Tennessee, Johnson City; and from 1979 to 1987 as senior law clerk to Judge H. Emory Widener, Jr., United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Abingdon, Va.

She is on the board of directors of the East Tennessee State University Foundation, the East Tennessee State University Alumni Association, the Tennessee Chapter of the American Corporate Counsel Association, and the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). She is a member of the American Corporate Counsel Association, the Society of Corporate Secretaries & Governance Professionals, and the American Bar Association. Lee is also a member of the General Counsel Committee of the American Bar Association and the Kingsport Bar Association. In addition, she serves on the State of Tennessee’s Judicial Nominating Commission.

Lee was named one of America’s Women Worth Watching in 2010 by Profiles in Diversity Journal. In May, 2002, she was awarded the East Tennessee State University National Alumni Association Outstanding Alumna Award and was recognized among the 1996 Honorarium for Women and Industry from Altrusa International of Kingsport.