Tom Gattis joined CCAD in 2012 to facilitate the creation of the college’s new Industrial Design program. During that time, he worked with other design program chairs as well as the directors of Liberal Arts and Foundation Studies programs to ensure the phase-in of the Industrial Design program by fall 2013. Gattis' prior academic leadership experience includes an Associate Vice President post and management of curricular overhauls of industrial and furniture design programs. In the private industry, Gattis has worked as a designer and project manager in the nuclear industry, as an account executive in the trade show and exhibition industry and as a professional model maker.

Gattis earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from Auburn University in Alabama and a master’s degree in Industrial Technology Education from Bemidji State University in Minnesota.

A former professor at Savannah College of Art and Design, Gattis spends his spare time as a wooden boat builder and master wood turner. He is a member of the Industrial Designers Society of America, the American Craft Council and the American Association of Woodturners.