Rev. Robert L. Galloway is joining Eckerd College as director of the center for spiritual life and chaplain. Photo by Lisa Presnail.
This summer, Rev. Robert Lord Galloway will step into his new role director of the Center for Spiritual Life and chaplain at Eckerd College—a position that, for much of his life, he never expected to pursue.
Growing up as the son of two Presbyterian pastors in South Carolina and Indiana, Galloway was immersed in church communities and congregational life from an early age. The experience, he says, was overwhelmingly positive.
“We were very Southern, very Christian and very liberal,” Galloway says with a laugh. “I only knew God as an expansive love, inclusive of all. I’m very fortunate for that.”
Even so, Galloway spent much of his young adulthood convinced he did not want to follow in his parents’ footsteps. “The joke growing up was always, ‘Oh gosh, no, I would never want to be a minister,’” he says, explaining he had a firsthand look at the realities of church life.
That certainty followed Galloway to Davidson College, where, rather than pursuing religious studies or a pre-ministry track, he majored in history. But while completing his senior capstone project, Galloway found himself unexpectedly drawn back toward the faith traditions that had shaped much of his childhood, focusing his research on the Southern Presbyterian Church in the 19th century.
Rev. Galloway delivers the invocation at Eckerd College’s 2026 Commencement. Photo by Lisa Presnail.
“The paper was so boring and tedious, but I had so much fun writing it,” Galloway says. “My love for church history and theological study grew from there.”
After graduating in 2009, Galloway worked in Washington, D.C., and Charlotte, North Carolina, for five years, including a role with the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation. Looking back, he says the experience reinforced the importance of mission-driven organizations and the strong sense of community that can emerge when people rally around a shared purpose.
“One thing nonprofit work taught me is that when people feel connected to a mission and to one another, that creates something lasting,” he says.
Later, while attending First Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, Galloway found himself becoming deeply involved in congregational life once again—“about as immersed as you can be without being the minister,” he says. During that time, he also began reflecting more seriously on the kind of career and life he wanted to build for himself.
“I realized I wasn’t just looking for the next job,” he says. “I was looking for a vocation.”That realization led him to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he earned his Master of Divinity in 2017. During his time there, he served as moderator of the student body and completed ministry internships in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He later served churches in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina, before becoming pastor of First Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he led worship and helped guide the downtown congregation’s community outreach and spiritual life initiatives.
Across those roles, Galloway found himself especially drawn to working with young adults, particularly those navigating questions about identity, faith, and belonging.
“I think asking difficult questions is actually an important part of faith,” he says. “It’s when you stop questioning altogether that we run into problems.”
As chaplain and head of the Center for Spiritual Life, Galloway will help guide Eckerd’s interfaith programming and spiritual life initiatives, which include everything from Protestant worship services and yoga to Muslim prayer groups and Buddhist meditation. Under his leadership, he hopes the Center continues serving as both a resource and a gathering space—one where students from all backgrounds feel comfortable asking difficult questions, building relationships, and exploring what gives their lives meaning.
“So many times, we believe that if we are explicit about what we believe or who we are, that will make us exclusive,” Galloway says. “But I think being open about who we are and what we believe creates space for other people to do the same.”
