Lacey Roberts-Hill, Ph.D.

Dr. Lacey Roberts-Hill grew up in Gail, Texas, where her father worked on a rural cattle ranch. From the age of six she was working cattle on the back of a horse alongside her father, inspiring her to later enter the livestock world through show cattle. Through her unique introduction to agriculture, Roberts-Hill grew a passion for the industry. Organizations such as FFA and 4-H grew her enthusiasm for agriculture. She eventually began to raise her own show steers and developed a passion for the dedication required to raise cattle.  
 
Roberts-Hill's small-town upbringing led her to West Texas A&M University where she earned her undergraduate degree. From there, she attended Oklahoma State University (OSU) for a master's degree. Looking to study agriculture from different perspectives, she enrolled in OSU’s international agriculture program. While on an international project in Uganda, Roberts-Hill was recruited by Texas A&M University for a doctoral assistantship, which was a pivotal moment in her academic career. Once she completed her doctorate, she found her way to Mississippi State University and began her first instructor position. Longing for home, she made her way closer to West Texas and accepted a position with New Mexico State University. There, Roberts-Hill had the opportunity to assist in building the agricultural communications degree program alongside teaching several courses. Now at Tech University, she carries the pieces from each institution and values the unique perspectives they provided.  

Roberts-Hill's research sits at the intersection of visual communication and international agriculture. Loving photography from a young age, visual literacy in agriculture comes easy. She works to convey stories and effective messages through imagery. Roberts-Hill also has a special focus on international agriculture and enjoys research focused on helping agricultural development nonprofits communicate their work more effectively. As a qualitative researcher, Roberts-Hill admires stories. Photo elicitation is a favorite tool of hers because it allows her to incorporate visuals, along with thoughts and feelings of participants. She is also expanding to unique types of quantitative methods, such as mobile eye tracking glasses.

Roberts-Hill's recent projects are vast and are impactful. In the process of wrapping up her work at New Mexico State University (NMSU) as affiliate faculty, she is the principal investigator on an undergraduate research project at NMSU. This project pairs undergraduate researchers with faculty mentors to help increase interest in agriculture food and natural resources research. In another project, she evaluates how law enforcement, FBI, and state police are trained in the event of an agricultural risk or crisis. Roberts-Hill also works on an intercultural learning grant researching the development of intercultural skills through domestic study aways. She recently joined a grant that explores best communication practices about bio packaging materials for meat products.  
 
Roberts-Hill enjoys supporting student-driven research. Mentoring students throughout the research process and being a part of their success brings Roberts-Hill a great sense of pride for her students. She has mentored student work which received the Distinguished Manuscript recognition at Western Region American Association for Agricultural Education (AAAE), and in 2023 and 2024 mentored thesis work that was selected as the Association for Communication Excellence (ACE) Distinguished Thesis.

She is excited to be a part of the Center for Agriscience Communication at Texas Tech (CATT) team and looks forward to leveraging her expertise in visual communications, storytelling, and intercultural communication to expand the center’s impact.