In addition to his leadership roles, Dr. Roberts started out as a Secondary Humanities teacher and held additional roles at schools ranging from Student Life Director, soccer (football) coach, WASC accreditation coordinator, and Director of Academic Development.

With a strong belief in a school improvement process that involves the voices, experiences, and expertise of all community members, Dr. Roberts has helped successfully lead two of his previous schools through their initial accreditation cycles, one with WASC and another with CIS. Serving as a WASC accreditation visiting committee member and chair around Asia has given Dr. Roberts an open and empathetic mindset, enabling him to navigate the challenges and opportunities that schools face in providing consistent, high-quality education with a global perspective for all students. Dedicated, effective teachers and staff are crucial to the success of such schools, and all students deserve to learn from caring adults who have students’ best interests at heart. For Dr. Roberts, joy in education comes from schools and families partnering together on behalf of children to create a positive, proactive, fun, and high-quality learning community.

Dr. Roberts’ approach to education is also guided by two key mottos. “Good sports are winners” is the official motto for Secondary student-athletes in the state of Michigan (USA), where Dr. Roberts grew up wrestling, playing soccer (football), and tennis. This motto underscores the importance of character and ethical practice over winning…although of course winning is more fun than losing! But the character and life lessons learned through sport, win or lose, are priceless, remaining with kids into adulthood.

His other guiding motto is “All of us are responsible for all of our students all the time.” While serving as Head of Secondary (Whole School Vice Principal) in Wuxi, Dr. Roberts coined this phrase due to his strong belief that schools do better when we believe we have an “our students” mindset rather than “my” or “your” mindsets. Having an “our students” mindset creates a collective and inclusive approach

wherein we are responsible for the learning, wellbeing, and safety of all students on a school campus, not just those whom we specifically teach.

Dr. Roberts is a member of the Association of International Educators and Leaders of Color (AIELOC), a non-profit organization devoted to amplifying the work of international educators and leaders of color with a focus on advocacy, learning, and research. He previously worked as a Research Associate for Institutional Effectiveness at the university-level and, prior to entering education, he was a Job Coach for developmentally disabled adults. Although he was a multiple-sport athlete growing up, some of his fondest memories during his school years were singing in choir or performing in musicals, experiences that expanded his circle of friends and provided him more life lessons, such as the ability to improvise in new situations and overcome fears. Most importantly, Dr. Roberts is married to a wonderful woman, May, and their boy,

Tarran, is in the PYP at Hanova!