Staff Spotlight: Robin Talbert

Robin Talbert has been with Wake Forest since 1997, working as the Administrative Coordinator in the Department of Mathematics & Statistics for 20 of those almost 24 years. 

How has Wake changed since you started? 

So many changes! The number of students and faculty have at least doubled, and the many systems and programs that we used have changed many times over.

What have you enjoyed most while working at Wake? 

Coming to this beautiful campus to work. The faculty and staff are more like family than co-workers!

Tell us about a favorite interaction with a student or faculty member. 

We had a student who was 12 years old when he started college. He and I became buddies right off. One day when he first started, he was meeting with his advisor and he had to go teach class…so he let this student stay in his office while he taught. The Professor’s office was in the same suite area as my office. This Professor wanted the student to be entertained while he was teaching so he gave him a tennis ball to play with while he was out. Need I say more! The student began tossing the tennis ball all over the office, over my head, everywhere…for 50 minutes! Let’s just say it was a wild and crazy 50 minutes. I had to laugh, but I also asked his professor to next time maybe give him something else to play with while he was out! As this student continued classes with us, he would stop by my office every morning to say hello and tell me all about his computer games and chess matches before class. It’s students and times like these that make you feel good and really enjoy what you do.

What is a fun fact about yourself that would surprise students to hear?  

I’ve always loved music. I started playing the drums at the age of 5. I used to play in a combo (that’s what they called it back in the day) every Saturday night.

What activities do you plan to enjoy when your retirement begins?

My daughter is expecting her first child, a boy, in April 2021. They live out of state, so I plan to spend a lot of time, before and after, with them.

Robin Talbert