Bobby Lee McCulley-Stacy is a writer, civic voice, and White County native whose life has been shaped equally by the hills of Tennessee and the shores of Florida’s Space Coast.
Born and raised in Sparta, Tennessee, Bobby grew up fully rooted in the rural community lifestyle that White County was known for. That community didn’t just raise him – it formed the foundation of how he thinks, writes, and engages with the world.
Bobby lives with Treacher Collins Syndrome, a craniofacial condition he has navigated since birth. It has shaped him in ways that matter: it taught him early that the world doesn’t always accommodate for those that are different and that fighting for your place in it – with grace, humor, and determination – is not weakness. It is the whole point of life.
Professionally, Bobby brings a broad and diverse background to everything he does. His career spans logistics and operations supervision, nonprofit grants writing and event coordination, journalism and editorial leadership, community recreation programming, and civic public service. He has written and edited for regional publications, managed multi-million dollar inventory operations, developed and submitted grant proposals for nonprofit organizations, coordinated large-scale fundraising events, and served in frontline leadership roles across distribution, corrections, and community services. He is experienced in data management, administrative operations, customer relations, and communications – and brings that same precision and accountability to his writing.
His time as Staff Writer at the Sparta Expositor, the very paper now publishing his Common Ground column, gave him a journalist’s instincts for research, sourcing, and telling a story that actually matters to people. His later role as Editor-in-Chief of Moving Forward Magazine at a nonprofit homeless outreach organization added editorial leadership, photography, and production design to that foundation.
Academically, Bobby holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas, a Master of Business Administration from Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee, and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Ministry and Liturgical Canon Law at Sewanee: The University of the South.
Life eventually took Bobby to Lebanon, Tennessee, and then a few years ago to Melbourne, Florida, where he lives with his husband, Dustin, whom he married in 2022, and their rescue dog Remus. Melbourne sits squarely on Florida’s Space Coast, and Bobby has embraced everything the region offers: hiking and exploring nature, music, theme parks, and lazy days on the beach watching rockets light up the sky from Kennedy Space Center. It’s a long way from Sparta in miles. In spirit, not so much.
Despite the distance, Bobby has never disconnected from White County. He stays informed on local issues, maintains relationships across the community, and writes with the knowledge and investment of someone who still has skin in the game. His column, Common Ground, runs in the Sparta Expositor and reflects his lifelong belief that honest conversation, the kind that challenges without alienating, is exactly what this community has always deserved.
McCulley-Stacy 