Alumni Spotlight

Lynette "Lucky" Robinson '68

A Consortium Gets "Lucky"

[image: Lynette Robinson '68 with Herman White '70]

Lynette "Lucky" Robinson '68 (right) with Herman White '70, a trustee at North Central College, one of the 23 schools in the consortium Robinson will lead.

Lynette “Lucky” Robinson ’68 is the new executive director of Associated New American Colleges (A.N.A.C.), a national consortium of 23 selective, small-to-mid-sized colleges and universities that meld liberal arts, professional studies and civic engagement. Robinson was most recently vice chancellor and deputy secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. A veteran of more than three decades in higher education, her career as an administrator began at Earlham where she worked for 15 years, including serving as Dean of Admissions for eight years.

“I don’t think I have ever been so excited to start a position,” says Robinson, who begins work at A.N.A.C. on September 1. “These institutions have a clear, shared mission, and I believe they have much to offer students. They are definitely student-centered and value liberal arts education, but they place equal emphasis on preparing students for careers and becoming responsible citizens.”

Robinson left Earlham in 1985 to become Dean of Admissions at A.N.A.C. member Simmons College (Boston, Mass.) and believes institutions in the consortium offer students a distinctive experience. “My experience is that students who graduate from schools such as these leave feeling both prepared to and very confident that they will find positions using their education and skills. That isn’t always the case for college graduates generally.”

A.N.A.C. schools, most of which are located in or near cities, offer students a wealth of internship and service learning opportunities and graduates often emerge with a “portfolio of accomplishments” from their work experience. Members of the consortium include Belmont University (Nashville, Tenn.), Butler University (Indianapolis, Ind.), Hamline University (Minneapolis, Minn.), Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, Wash.) and Wagner College (New York City). Although faculty members at these schools are more focused on teaching than research, all of the institutions offer some graduate programs, mostly at the master’s level, or first professional degree level, which allows students to be exposed to some advanced research and easily continue their graduate or proofessional studies. Robinson says that the things these institutions have in common will help her find shared goals for the consortium despite the geographical distance between the schools and individual characteristics of the member schools.

“Working at the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, I learned how to coordinate disparate institutions,” she said. “My first task will be to learn more about these schools, and listen to what they feel their shared priorities are. My charge will then be to promote and expand the consortium.”

Robinson earned a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania and a doctorate at Boston College. For her work at the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education, she received the Governor’s Manuel Carbello Award for Excellence in Public Service.

Thinking back to her Earlham student days, Robinson remembers watching then Dean of Admissions John Owen and Dean of Women Judy Hyde walk from Lilly Library to Carpenter Hall deep in conversation about some matter of Earlham campus life.

“I wanted to be them,” Robinson remembers. “I decided very early that I wanted to be involved in the lives of students at that crucial period of their lives. I knew first hand that a college can become like a second family to a student.”

Twenty years after she left Earlham to continue her career in higher education elsewhere, Robinson says that her alma mater holds a special place in her heart.

“I came to Earlham from Texas, sight unseen,” she recalls with a chuckle, adding that Earlham quickly became more than just a school for her. Even now, she values how the school maintains, “as integrated and collaborative a collegiate environment as I have seen.” She thinks that Earlham provides a model for how a college can prepare students to contribute to the world in which they live. The college was also a source of personal and emotional support for Robinson, both as a student and as she began her career as a administrator.

Robinson’s father died when she was a junior in high school and her mother passed away shortly after she graduated from college, so Earlham was much more for Robinson than just a place to learn.

“My colleagues at Earlham, many of whom are still my dearest friends, mentored and encouraged me,” she notes. “They opened doors for me to grow personally and professionally.”

As soon as she discovered, while working in student development at Earlham, that she could touch the lives of students the way Earlham faculty members has touched hers, she knew she had found her vocation.

“I got hooked on making a difference,” she says.

As the leader of A.N.A.C., she remains committed to making a positive impact on higher education by fostering collaboration and cooperation between the member institutions. Among her duties will be to coordinate professional development activities for faculty and staff, find ways that the institutions can effectively promote the scholarship of teaching and learning that is valued on these campuses and identify opportunities from which all the member schools can benefit. Robinson is confident the consortium is poised to raise its national profile and that of the member institutions.

“I immediately felt a connection,” she says of learning about A.N.A.C. and its mission. “This is where I can make a difference.”