He earned his Bachelor of Science at Mississippi College and his Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi Medical Center, Department of Biochemistry. After post-doctoral fellowships at Emory University in the Department of Physics and Biophysics and at the University of Georgia in the Department of Medical Microbiology, he returned to Mississippi to teach at Belhaven University. In 2013, Reid was recognized for his contributions to promoting academic excellence in higher education by the Mississippi Legislature. He is currently active in ACS and additionally serves as the director of the Lower Mississippi River Institute and as a board member of SENCER Center of Innovation Southwest.