A native of South Dakota, Robert Sessions earned a B.A. from Drake University and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan.  For more than four decades he taught at Kirkwood Community College, Grinnell College, Luther College, and the University of Minnesota in Duluth. 

Sessions has received several awards for his teaching, including being named National Teacher of the Year from the Community College Trustees Association in 1995 and National Humanities Teacher of the Year from the Community College Humanities Association in 2009.

He is the author of Becoming Real: Authenticity in an Age of Distractions and co-author ofWorking In America: A Humanities Reader. He has also published several dozen articles on environmental philosophy, the philosophy of work, ethics, and the philosophy of technology. 

Sessions lives in Iowa City with his wife, Lori Erickson, and is the proud father of five children and the grandfather of three.