Hill has been a faculty member at Tuskegee University since 1977 and Dean of Agriculture since 1987 at Tuskegee University. Currently Hill serves as Professor, Dean, Vice Provost, and Director of USDA 1890 Research, Administrator of USDA 1890 Cooperative Extension, and Director of the Carver Agricultural Experiment Station at Tuskegee University, and a member of the Macon County Economic Development Authority.

Hill served as Director for the NASA Center for Food and Environmental Systems for Human Exploration of Space for 20 years (including two space flight, plant growth experiments). He served as faculty advisor for student award-winning projects and provided leadership for the initiation of Ph.D. programs in Integrative Biosciences and Integrative Public Policy and Development.  He also served as faculty advisor for the first online graduate degree program at Tuskegee University.

Hill co-founded the Carver Integrative Sustainability Center, the Alabama Agricultural Land Grant Alliance and the Professional Agricultural Workers Journal. He provided leadership for the Southern Food Systems Education Consortium (9 states, 10 yrs.), and the Professional Agricultural Workers Conference (18 southern & border states, 30 yrs.). He served as a member of USAID Board on International Food and Agricultural Development, and chair of the USDA Farm Service Agency State Committee for Alabama.

Hill has 133 publications and two patents. He is a founding Board Member of the 1890 Universities Foundation and served as Chair of the 1890 Council of Deans, Association of Research Directors, APLU Academic Heads Section and Black Belt Community Foundation. 

Hill received the B.A. in chemistry from Lake Forest College, M.A.T. in chemistry from the University of Chicago, M.S. in agricultural chemistry and soils from the University of Arizona, and Ph.D. in agronomy and environmental chemistry from the University of Illinois.

In 2016, Hill was inducted into the USDA, National Institute of Food and Agriculture Hall of Fame.  He has also been awarded the American Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) Association of Research Directors (ARD) Award for Excellence in Leadership, the USDA Abraham Lincoln Award for Exceptional Achievement in Rural Development, the George Washington Carver Distinguished Service Award from Iowa State University, and the George Washington Carver Distinguished Service and Innovation Award from the Carver Birthplace Association.  He is married to Jill Harris Hill and they have three sons.