Dr. Robert Owens

IMPACT Leadership – Founding Member

Robert Owens is a husband and father of five. Dr. Rob has worked for years in Access and Diversity at Tennessee Tech University. Among many other areas within this work is coordination of the $2 million diversity scholarship fundraising effort. In January of 2020, he was appointed Interim Vice President of Student Affairs at TTU. In that role he had oversight of over 10 student services departments and helped navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic in serving students at the institution. Dr. Rob served in the Interim VP of Student Affairs role until July of 2021. He has now been appointed Senior Executive for Access and Community Outreach at Tech and will expand upon his work in Access, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Owens’s work in the community is multi-faceted. This work includes serving as founding Pastor of Kainos Church, a multi-ethnic church situated in the heart of Cookeville, TN; and, serving on boards of various local-area organizations, including but not limited to, Highlands Residential Services (formerly the Cookeville Housing Authority), and IMPACT Cookeville and IMPACT Leadership, both non-profit organizations centered around increasing and promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity in Upper Cumberland region.