Roger Hughes

Dr. Roger Hughes started as Doane University’s 13th President in June 2021. A native of Crawford, Nebraska, he graduated from Doane College in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in biology and physical education and was active as both a player and coach for the college’s football and basketball teams. He received his master’s and doctorate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and was part of the Husker football coaching staff under Tom Osborne.

From Nebraska, he served as an assistant coach on the coaching staffs of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater where they earned a DIV III playoff berth and at Dartmouth College where they won two Ivy League championships. He was selected as the head football coach at Princeton University where his 2006 team recorded the most wins in 47 years and won another Ivy League title. Most recently, Hughes served as head coach at Stetson University, where he was hired to completely remake the university’s football program after a 56-year absence. The experiences he gained during a decade of working with Stetson’s administration to create a thriving D-1 team prepared him to take his next step and to tackle a life-long goal as president of his alma mater.