Joyce L. Roberts is the business manager for the 17 departments, programs and centers in the School of Literatures, Cultures and Linguistics. Roberts started at the university in April 1984 as a secretary II in the department of plant biology. In 1987, she moved to the department of mathematics and worked there until she accepted her current position two years ago. Roberts grew up in Assumption, Ill., and later graduated from Monticello High School. She and her husband, Doug, a mechanic in the university’s Garage and Car Pool, have two children and three grandsons. They live in the Mahomet area.
Tell me about your job.
My office is the business arm of the school, so anything that requires an account number has to come through this office in some way or another. I have four people on my team who work with me and help me with those tasks.
What do you like most about your job?
I like the complexity of it – there are never two days in a row where I do the same thing. By virtue of having 17 different departments, programs and centers, there are always questions to field and always someone who has a problem that needs to be solved. It’s a very busy environment here, and I very much enjoy that. I like multi-tasking – I don’t twiddle my thumbs very well at all.
How does this job differ from your previous one at the department of mathematics?
When I worked at the mathematics department, some called me the departmental psychologist because anybody who had a problem or issue would come to me. They knew that their issue was not going to go anywhere outside of my office. I learned a lot of things about people in that job.
This school is multi-cultural and multi-lingual. It’s been a lot of fun to get to know people in this building.
Describe your volunteer work experiences.
My husband and I belong to the Mahomet Christian Church and I’ve gone on two weeklong mission trips with the church. One was a medical trip to Port-au-Prince, Haiti. We saw at least a hundred people a day, sometimes over that, in the clinics we set up. I worked in the pharmacy, with record-keeping and counting pills, that sort of thing.
That particular area is hard-hit with political issues. The mission trips there are few and far between now because it is not safe.
The whole trip made a huge impression on me. I would go back in a second, no questions asked.
You’ve also volunteered in New Orleans, correct?
This last summer we worked with a church group in St. Bernard’s Parish outside of New Orleans. What’s happened is the government has forgotten those people, and there’s not much of a governmental effort to put things back together. But the churches have banded together, and it’s the churches that are bringing the neighborhoods back. We worked in this one particular church doing a lot of drywall and construction, and then we went out into the city and painted the inside of a woman’s house.
Tell me more about that.
She had previously been living in a FEMA trailer. Her son bought her a shell of a house, and began to put it back together for her. She needed it painted, so we went as a group and helped with painting the inside of her house.
The woman had a 4-year-old daughter, and she had one stool in her house, no sinks whatsoever, a kitchen stove, no cabinets, and everything was in boxes. She had a utility sink out in her garage, and she carted all of her dishes out there to wash them every day. She had to walk to her son’s house every night to take a shower. She said it was 300 times better than living in a FEMA trailer.
That really makes an impression on you. We would like to go back in February or March and do another week in New Orleans.
What inspired you to do volunteer work?
I grew up in a large extended family that originated in Arkansas from a very poor background. When we had work that needed to be done, it was a community effort. When other people in the community needed a helping hand, my mother was always there for them. And I think that’s what inspired me more than anything – growing up in a family that was ready to help.
Besides volunteering, do you have any other hobbies?
I like to collect moose-related things. We have property in Colorado and enjoy the outdoors. We do a lot of hunting and outdoor activities with family. I like watching nature. It’s a chance to be quiet and listen to your inner self.
I also sing with a gospel music group from church called ‘Chosen’ that does some traveling. I’m a busy girl.
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