Roberts brings twenty-five years of private higher education experience to his role as president. A native of Maryville, Tennessee, he attended Middle Tennessee State University where he earned both his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English literature and language. He went on to earn a doctorate in interdisciplinary studies in the humanities at the Union Institute and University. He has served as a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow studying Appalachian culture; a DuPont fellow at the National Humanities Center studying cultural globalization; an American studies fellow at Salzburg Seminars in Salzburg, Austria; and a fellow in the John S. Knight Writing Seminar at Cornell University. His scholarly publications and presentations focus on Appalachian cultural identity and American poetry. A creative writer at heart, Dr. Roberts has numerous poems published in literary journals and poetry anthologies. 

Roberts came to Reinhardt in 2013 as the vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty. Since then, Roberts has also served Reinhardt in the roles of provost, executive vice president, and interim president, in addition to being writing center director and a professor. “Dr. Roberts has proven to be a highly respected and effective leader,” said Ken White, chairman of Reinhardt’s board of trustees. “We are grateful?for his service to Reinhardt and look forward to his tenure as our President."   

“We thrive in a changing world by having faith in the things we cannot see but hope for,” said Roberts. “Like the captain of a ship, we must keep our eye on the North Star, a standard reference point by which we navigate. For Reinhardt, our North Star is our mission to educate the whole person and our vision to create an educational experience to help students thrive.”