LUMBERTON — After graduating from Pembroke Senior High in 1979, Joe Roberts found himself in a new world when he went to college. The son of a secretary and a retired U.S. Army serviceman, Roberts chose Davidson College, a small private college north of Charlotte.

“I was very intimidated going to Davidson from Pembroke,” he said. “Partly by the difference I thought I had in my education, but also by the socioeconomic differences between me and other students. I was around all these other students who had been raised in private schools. But after a few months, I realized I deserved to be there, and that I had something to offer.”

After graduating from Davidson, Roberts went on to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Medicine, followed by a family medicine residency at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro. Next, he completed a three-year scholarship repayment obligation by practicing at the Choctaw Nation Indian Hospital in Talihina, Okla., working for the Indian Health Services.

“Ideally, my plan was to repay that scholarship in Robeson County, but they told me I couldn’t do it because the Lumbees didn’t have federal recognition,” Roberts said. “But it was a good experience for me, and I’m glad I did it. The contrast between the two tribes, and how federal recognition has affected the Choctaw people, made me appreciate the work ethic I’d seen in Robeson County growing up in the Lumbee tribe.”

Roberts knew he wanted to return to Robeson County, and during his last year in Oklahoma, former Southeastern Health Physician Services Director Morris Bullock and former CEO Don Hiscott recruited him to open a family medicine practice with admitting privileges at Southeastern Regional Medical Center. It made sense to Roberts, who was born in the hospital and who still considered Robeson County home. Many of his mentors also practiced in Robeson County. Among them were Dr. Ben Hardin, Dr. Kenneth Locklear and Dr. Herman Chavis.

“I always felt there was a great unmet need for health care providers in Robeson County, and I felt I could, in a small way, make a difference,” Roberts said. “The idea that you could go practice somewhere else in a larger area, to me, meant that you’d just be another provider. But here, you could make a difference. It helped that when the hospital recruited doctors and surgeons to practice locally, they would give you a salary guarantee for the first year, when you’re trying to build up your patients.”

In 1994, he opened Lumber River Family Practice, where he worked for more than 20 years in private practice. His decision to transition to Southeastern Health full time in 2016 followed the shift that in doctors’ offices across the country, as running a medical practice became more of a complex business than just providing medical care.

Roberts also was a former member of Southeastern Health’s board of trustees and the Medical Executive Board. He began working at Southeastern Health as the director of the Hospitalist Program, but was named interim chief medical officer after the position became open. A few months later, he stepped into the role of vice president of clinical effectiveness and medical affairs.

“I’m essentially the hospital’s chief medical officer,” Roberts said. “I oversee the director of hospitalists, but I don’t oversee the resident physicians and medical students. My duties are over quality, physician recruiting, the medical staff office, the hospitalist program, and the outpatient network clinics.”

Roberts said one of the things he’s felt strongly about throughout his career is medical education. Before Southeastern Health began its residency program, he was a preceptor for hundreds of students studying to be doctors, physician assistants or pharmacists.

“That was out of a commitment on my part to give back to medicine some of what had been given to me,” Roberts said.

Roberts’ wife is a teacher in the Public Schools of Robeson County, and when he talks about his experiences with local schools — as a student, father and grandfather of students, and the husband of a teacher — he sees a lot of parallels between the people who choose to work in both fields here. All three of his children went to public schools, as did his two stepchildren. He proudly lists off their accomplishments: one is a nurse at Southeastern Regional Medical Center, one is working on a master’s degree in Sociology, one is applying to medical school, and one is currently a sophomore at The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and one works at UNCP.

Samantha Roberts is his daughter and also works at SRMC. She is a graduate of Purnell Swett High School who received her bachelor’s degree in Nursing from UNCP in 2015. She is a shift supervisor in Maternal/Child Health. Now, with a daughter of her own in school, she loves knowing that the small-town feel of her school years is being shared by her daughter.

“I think it’s more community-centered here,” she said. “I graduated with the same people I started with. We all went through together. Everyone is very involved and engaged in the community. Now with my daughter, every year she goes back she has the same friends and that’s why she loves school. It’s all intertwined. I think that’s healthy for children.”

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Roberts creditspublic schoolsfor career start

By Roxana Ross

Roxana Ross is content writer and photographer for Southeastern Health.