Dr. Anna Roberts, Associate Professor, earned a B.S. degree in Home Economics Education from East Tennessee State University in 1974.  Following experience as a high school home economics teacher in Greeneville, Tennessee, she prepared herself for college teaching by completing a Ph.D. in Clothing and Textiles at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (1990).  Dr. Roberts teaches apparel and textiles courses in the Applied Human Sciences Department, coordinating both the merchandising and the family and consumer sciences education concentrations.  Dr. Roberts also serves as advisor to the departmental honor society Kappa Beta Rho Chapter of Kappa Omicron Nu, a national award-winning chapter.

Areas of expertise include apparel construction and design, quality analysis, textiles, psychological/sociological aspects of dress, and visual merchandising.  Research interests include exhibiting original apparel designs in international juried competitions and documenting rare examples of outsider textile art (textile designs of the mentally disturbed, or those operating "outside" mainstream society).

Dr. Roberts serves in a leadership capacity with the International Textiles and Apparel Association and the Tennessee Association of Family and Consumer Sciences.  She also consults with the Tennessee State Department of Education in family and consumer sciences education.

Recent honors include the Tennessee Association of Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America Distinguished Service Certificate (2002), the Tennessee Association of Family and Consumer Sciences District D Award (2001) and the College of Applied Science and Technology Foundation Teaching Award (1998 and 2002).  In 1996, Dr. Roberts was one of only twenty-five designers from around the world invited to exhibit original apparel designs at the International Textiles and Apparel Association by-invitation-only juried design competition held in Lyon, France.