Major Stacey Heatherly

Stacey Heatherly has a new rank and a new job. The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) has promoted her to the rank of major and in addition to her Knoxville Dist. 1 command, she’s now the commander of THP’s East Bureau and responsible for Field Operations over the Knoxville, Chattanooga, Cookeville and Fall Branch districts.

THP Col. Matt Perry made the announcement during a special ceremony in Nashville: “I am proud to announce the promotion of Stacey Heatherly to Major. She has demonstrated her passion and devotion to the THP throughout her exemplary 27-year career. Congratulations.”

Perry honored Heatherly during the National Women in Law Enforcement Conference on April 14 at the Sheraton Grand Nashville Downtown Hotel with 500 attendees watching. “It was so special being honored at the conference that THP sponsors and having Commissioner Long there (Jeff Long, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security) at the promotion ceremony,” she added.

Heatherly, 59, is only the third female in THP history to attain the rank of major. The others are Betty Blair and Cheryl Sanders. Heatherly worked for both during her career – in Nashville with Blair and with Sanders when she was the captain of Dist. 1 Knoxville. “I’ve had good mentors and been lucky about this in my career,” she says. “Both ladies were my mentors too and key in my career.

“I am very honored, humble, grateful and blessed. It’s very hard for me to put into words and describe my feelings,” Heatherly said. “The four captains of the East Tennessee districts report directly to me and one of my major responsibilities is to make sure of their commitment and dedication to the THP and to maintain their level of integrity and to always be accountable for their actions.”

Along with the promotion comes having to move her office from the Dist. 1 headquarters on Strawberry Plains Pike to Nashville. That means working in Nashville Monday-Friday, traveling a great deal throughout the multi-county district and coming home on weekends to the 97-acre farm and home she shares with husband Michael, also a THP trooper who works in the Investigations Unit. She’ll be catching up with the family, including six grandchildren and one great granddaughter – a chore she really loves.

Her promotion also created another promotion. The trooper she calls “my right arm” during her five years of leading the Knoxville district – Lt. Eric Miller – has been promoted to captain and now supervises Dist. 1. But he’s having to give up one of his THP jobs, being the primary law enforcement officer escorting the University of Tennessee football coaches. He’s walked, run and traveled with six – Phillip Fulmer, Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones, Jeremy Pruitt and Josh Heupel.

Heatherly is now responsible for all “road personnel” troopers for half of the state. The state has eight districts.

Surviving serious wreck

Heatherly’s smashed vehicle following her April 3, 2024, collision.

In one regard, she’s lucky to be here for this honor. Just 13 months ago – on April 3, 2024 – she was responding from her home, driving to Sunbright to help the community after a major tornado blew through Morgan County. She never made it to Sunbright. She was driving west on two-lane Highway 62 when a young drunk driver lost control and crossed the center line and hit her Ford Explorer THP cruiser head-on. For the first time she was the injured victim.

It took first responders a few minutes to reach her. She says they worked for 20 minutes to extricate her. She thinks she was conscience throughout. The then-captain remembers: “Yes, I called it in on the radio myself after a few minutes of getting my thoughts together.”

She could have been killed. Perhaps she would have been had she been in her private vehicle. THP cruisers are built strong. But her injuries were serious – a broken sternum, a fractured back, ligaments and nerve damage to her right hand and ligament and tendon damage to her right ankle. Weather, of course, had UT’s Lifestar grounded, so it was a long ambulance ride to the University of Tennessee Medical Center’s emergency room – led by a THP escort.

Heatherly was finally able to return to work on February 26, 2025. It was a long recovery of healing, therapy and a number of medical procedures.

She’s a product of her late and well-known parents – Virginia Jo and Dr. Burgin Wood. Her father died in 2018 at 93 and her mother in 2019 at 92. Both were pilots and her mother was a member of The Ninety-Nines, a nationwide club for women pilots. Her father was a general surgeon and a family doctor who delivered many babies and cared for many Campbell County families. He was in practice with his brother-in-law, Dr. James Crutchfield.

Heatherly graduated from the THP Trooper Academy in 1998 (the only woman to graduate in a class of 42) and was first a road trooper in Wilson and Campbell counties. She was promoted to sergeant in 2007, in the Office of Professional Accountability (Internal Affairs). Heatherly continued as a sergeant at the Knox County scales on I-40, then was patrol supervisor in Knox and Union counties before being promoted to lieutenant in 2013. She also served Anderson, Campbell and Scott counties as a patrol lieutenant before moving to Special Programs. She graduated from the Northwestern School of Police Staff and Command in 2012. During those 23 years she also served as THP’s first uniformed public information officer.

And she’s a for-sure product of East Tennessee right down to the ground. A sign in her Dist. 1 Knoxville office defined a true Tennessee girl – “Loves God, Sweet Tea and the SEC.” That sign has a new home now.

Tom King has been the editor of newspapers in Texas and California and also worked in Tennessee and Georgia. If you have someone you think we should consider featuring, please email him at the link with his name or text him at 865-659-3562.

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