diff --git a/tricircle/api/controllers/root.py b/tricircle/api/controllers/root.py
index 7a3382bf..e3b227ce 100644
--- a/tricircle/api/controllers/root.py
+++ b/tricircle/api/controllers/root.py
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ def _extract_context_from_environ(environ):
         context_paras[key] = environ.get(context_paras[key])
     role = environ.get('HTTP_X_ROLE')
     # TODO(zhiyuan): replace with policy check
-    context_paras['is_admin'] = role == 'admin'
+    context_paras['is_admin'] = 'admin' in role.split(',') if role else False
     return t_context.Context(**context_paras)
 
 
diff --git a/tricircle/common/context.py b/tricircle/common/context.py
index 8cf372cf..962395fb 100644
--- a/tricircle/common/context.py
+++ b/tricircle/common/context.py
@@ -55,7 +55,7 @@ def extract_context_from_environ():
         context_paras[key] = environ.get(context_paras[key])
     role = environ.get('HTTP_X_ROLE')
 
-    context_paras['is_admin'] = role == 'admin'
+    context_paras['is_admin'] = 'admin' in role.split(',') if role else False
     return Context(**context_paras)