Dr. Julia Roberts

Dr. Julia Link Roberts is the Mahurin Professor of Gifted Studies and the Executive Director of The Center for Gifted Studies and the Carol Martin Gatton Academy of Mathematics and Science in Kentucky. During the celebration of Western Kentucky University's Centennial in 2006, Dr. Roberts was honored for her work by being named one of the one hundred gifts WKU has given to the world. She is an active advocate for gifted children at the state and national levels. For her advocacy work, she received the very first David W. Belin Advocacy Award from the National Association for Gifted Children (NAGC) in 2001. In Profiles of Influence in Gifted Education (Prufrock, 2004), Dr. Roberts was described as one of the fifty-five most influential people in the field of gifted education. Dr. Roberts is a leader in gifted education serving on the boards of the Kentucky Association for Gifted Education and The Association for the Gifted (a division of the Council for Exceptional Children); and she is one of seven elected members of the Executive Committee for the World Council for Gifted and Talented Children. Dr. Roberts enjoys the opportunity to direct summer and Saturday programs for hundreds of young people, something she has done each year for almost thirty years. She graduated from the University of Missouri and then earned a master's degree and the Ed. D. at Oklahoma State University.