Stella Pecot Robinson, RN, PhD, has been a nurse educator and social/community activist her entire life. She was born in a small, segregated, rural town, Franklin, Louisiana, on August 25, 1922. She received her BSN in Nursing and graduated magna cum laude from Dillard University in 1948, her Master’s degree in Nursing Education from Columbia University in 1950, and later, her doctorate in Adult Education with a specialty in gerontology from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1984. While at Dillard, Dr. Robinson was a member and on the Executive Board of the Southern Negro Youth Congress, which was actively involved in voter education and registration in the mid-1940s. She also represented Dillard at many regional, national, and international meetings and conferences. Being hired by the Los Angeles County Hospital School of Nursing in 1950, she was the first African American instructor to teach in a registered nursing (RN) program in the State of California. She taught in eight Schools of Nursing in five states during her career, including helping start the RN program at Alcorn State University and retiring from the University of Michigan’s School of Nursing. She was honored twice at Columbia University’s Teachers College; first recognized as one of the Distinguished Leaders among TC Nursing Alumni, and in 2013 was inducted into the Nursing Hall of Fame for Nursing Education.
Dr. Robinson was always very involved in social justice and community organizing. She led the community fight in the mid-1960s against the Concord Park proposal in which developers planned to build a 1,000-unit housing complex for low-income families on 10 acres of the former Athens Tank Farm. President Kennedy appointed her to the Equal Opportunity Advisory Committee, she served as a member of the first Board of Directors to set up the Charles R. Drew Postgraduate Medical School (later the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science), and served on the Black Education Commission of LAUSD. She was PTA President for two years at the local elementary school, Den Mother in the local Boy Scout Troop, served as Elder and Deacon in various Presbyterian churches, and represented the church on local, regional, national, and international levels. After she retired, she was active in the Community Coalition for Change, the 116th Place Block Club, and the Harbor Gateway North Neighborhood Council. In 1976, Dr. Robinson was honored for outstanding contributions to the City of Los Angeles by the LA Human Relations Commission and LA City Council.
Dr. Robinson was married to Vernon Lucius Robinson, Jr. (who passed in 2014) and has three children, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
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