Robert E. Knott, Ph.D., has more than 33 years experience as a senior-level administrator of small colleges.  In addition to serving as dean, academic vice-president and provost, he was president of Tusculum College, chancellor of Mars Hill College and president of Catawba College. Dr. Knott also taught mathematics, physics and religion and was professor of philosophy.

At Tusculum College, he led an institutional renewal through the adoption of a distinctive academic calendar, a complete curricular restructuring and a strategic planning process that reformulated the College's mission, purpose and identity.  Annual giving to the College increased tenfold, enrollment tripled and faculty doubled in size. The successful transformation was described and analyzed in several published books on leadership in higher education.

At Catawba College, he oversaw a substantial improvement in the academic quality of the student body; a $17 million campaign and project to renovate and expand the Computer Center, the library and the student center, and the construction of five new residence halls.  He also led a successful endowment campaign, raising more than $40 million.

Dr. Knott has led Southern Association of Colleges and Schools reaccreditation team visits, has served on the Kettering Foundation panel of college presidents reviewing the state of higher education, and has been a board member for the Tennessee Foundation of Independent Colleges and for the Appalachian College Association. He has held offices on the Board of Tennessee Independent Colleges and the Board of the North Carolina Association of Colleges and Universities.

With a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and physics/education from Wake Forest University and a bachelor’s degree in Social Ethics from Southeastern Seminary, he holds a master's degree in religion and philosophy from Wake Forest University, and a Ph.D. in philosophy/higher education from SUNY/Buffalo. He completed additional graduate study in mathematics and physics at North Carolina State University and mathematics at Wake Forest University.