Faculty Profile: Masami Tyson

Masami Tyson serves as the Global Director of Foreign Direct Investment and Trade for the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. Tyson works to create jobs for Tennesseans by recruiting and supporting foreign businesses to and in the State. She manages and develops strategy for Tennessee’s offices in six worldwide locations. She also interfaces with various diplomatic offices and organizations located domestically and abroad. Tyson is also the state’s trade director.

Tyson was born and raised in Yokohama, Japan, has lived in the United States since age 18, and has been a proud Tennessean for over two decades. She received her B.A. and M.A. in the Writing Seminars at the Johns Hopkins University, where she was a recipient of the Sudler Prize in the Arts. After teaching creative writing at Hopkins and then in high schools in Tennessee, she received her law degree from Vanderbilt Law School. She worked as a federal law clerk, a litigator at Neal & Harwell, PLC, and then held various in-house positions such as at Mentor Graphics Corporation and at Nissan North America.

After over fifteen years of a career in law, Tyson transitioned to her current role of public service in economic development, in which she could best use her international background and best serve her fellow Tennesseans. She was hired by Commissioner Bob Rolfe to assume her current role in October of 2018.

Tyson lives in Nashville with her husband, Rich, and their three children.