As SACE director, Megan Roberts’ ag career evolves

By LAURA COLE

The Land Staff Writer

Dr. Megan Roberts recently finished her first year as the Executive Director for the Minnesota State Southern Agricultural Center of Excellence (SACE). The position has proven to be an optimal setting for Roberts to utilize her agricultural background and experience in education to serve the ag industry throughout southern Minnesota.

Although Roberts joined SACE in March of 2022, she has been indirectly involved with the program since it began. Roberts previously taught at South Central College from 2012-2017. SCC is SACE’s campus home.

With a steadfast commitment to agriculture, Roberts always knew she’d be involved in the industry. She grew up on a dairy farm in Minnesota’s Stearns County, and was involved in both FFA and 4-H. She commented it was her involvement in those organizations — especially as a state 4-H ambassador — that guided her career pathway in agriculture and education.

Regarding her education, Roberts stated, “It’s a journey!” After she received her Bachelor of Science degree in Plant Science from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, Roberts moved to her husband Dan’s family hog and crop farm located near Madelia, Minn. She worked at an offfarm job for a year.

“Since I took my first economics course my junior year at the University of Minnesota, I became really fascinated with the way agriculture, economics, and policies interact and affect agribusinesses, farm families, and rural communities,” Roberts stated. Even after graduating, she continued to take additional economics courses (“for fun!”) because she knew she wanted to emphasize agricultural policy and economics during her master’s program.

Roberts went back to the U of M-Twin Cities to attend grad school full-time on a fellowship, commuting from Madelia to Minneapolis. With a goal of working in higher education, she received her Master of Science degree in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy.

Upon completion of this degree, Roberts accepted a position at South Central College — teaching courses such as ag economics, commodity marketing, and agribusiness transfer and law. “While at SCC, I started on my doctorate of education in agricultural education, which is a joint program of Texas A&M and Texas Tech Universities,” Roberts said. “I worked full-time teaching agribusiness while I did that degree, taking classes online and traveling to Texas occasionally for in-person programs.”

In 2017, Roberts began working for University of Minnesota Extension as an educator with a focus on farm transition and estate planning. She remained in this role until 2022.

Roberts is also an adjunct professor at Minnesota State University-Mankato where she teaches two agribusiness courses. She brings to her positions a dedication to the region of southern Minnesota and excitement for the ag industry.

A career highlight of Roberts is the opportunity she received to travel to Peru with a group of her SCC students. They were able to learn about agriculture in a different country and also visit Machu Picchu. “It’s amazing to look back at pictures,” Roberts said. She added a student who was a part of that trip and is now farming stated the class had changed his life.

For Roberts, the most meaningful parts of her career have been working in areas she feels she can best give back. She remarked the work that fills her cup has been with college students, as well as with farm families regarding transition and estate planning. Having grown up in ag production and being married to full-time farmer, Roberts is able to use firsthand knowledge when having conversations with families about topics such as evaluating the need for off-farm employment and determining the viability of bringing family members back in to the business.

In her free time, Roberts enjoys simply reading for fun, “fluffy fiction” or something aside from the usual text of academia. She and her husband have a fouryear-old son, Evan, who loves any opportunity he can get to see steers and cows and “loves, loves, loves tractors.” With a laugh, Roberts said she intentionally introduced Evan at an early age to a variety of different kinds of toys. But at the end of the day, he is a farm boy through and through; very enthusiastic about John Deere tractors and very into wearing green. Roberts admitted spending time with her husband and son is “always number-one on my list.” v