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Brewing knowledge: How Peter Roberts inspires students through coffee research

Emory professor Peter Roberts loves coffee. But he’s not only interested in the beans, the roasting techniques and the flavors. He’s interested in the full process of production — and what his students can learn from specialty coffee growers about the role of business in society.

Roberts is academic director of the Business and Society Institute, housed in the Goizueta Business School, where he teaches classes on the coffee industry by exploring the full supply chain, from farm to mug.

As a professor of organization and management at Goizueta, Roberts also leads student trips to Honduras and Guatemala through the Specialty Coffee Program, which is part of the Institute. On the trips, students tour coffee farms and help growers craft stories around their businesses — which in turn allows them to charge more for their specialty product and, ideally, pay themselves and their workers better wages.

Roberts is committed to using the vast knowledge and resources at Goizueta to help create a more equitable coffee industry. To him, good business means more than just individual gain. It means doing good for other people and the world, too. His classes have resonated with the many Emory students who view business as a catalyst to solve real-world problems.

Watch the video to hear a special story from Roberts — how alumna Eden Gebreselassi took lessons from the classroom; applied them to her family business, Haile Coffee; and returned to Emory to share her ongoing work with current students at a “sip-and-learn” in 2025.

Video by Avery D. Spalding and Sarah Woods, Emory Photo/Video 


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