SEATTLE, WA - Rachel Robinson, founder of the Jackie Robinson Foundation, will give a keynote address Thursday, Jan. 25, at the annual meeting of Seattle-based Casey Family Programs, the largest national operating foundation whose sole mission is to provide and improve - and ultimately prevent the need for - foster care.
As a corporate leader, activist, professor, nurse, wife, mother, and grandmother, Rachel Robinson has enjoyed enormous personal and professional accomplishments as well as sharing those achieved by her husband Jackie Robinson, who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in 1947.
Together, the couple supported numerous causes, but in particular they were committed to championing the struggle for civil rights, both on and off the baseball field. Following the death of her husband in 1972, Ms. Robinson founded the Jackie Robinson Foundation (JRF), to provide scholarships and leadership training to youth. A career nurse, Ms. Robinson earned her masters degree in psychiatric nursing and worked as a researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Department of Social and Community Psychiatry. After five years at that post, Ms. Robinson became the director of nursing for the Connecticut Mental Health Center, and assistant professor of nursing at Yale University.
Established in 1973, the Jackie Robinson Foundation (JRF) is one of the nation's premier education and leadership development programs. It provides four-year college scholarships to minority students who demonstrate academic achievement, leadership capacity and financial need. Transcending financial assistance, the Foundation equips its scholarship recipients with a comprehensive set of support services including mentoring, career guidance and practical life skills, resulting in a 97% graduation rate, more than twice the national average for minority students. The more than 1,100 JRF alumni are both leaders in their professional fields and consummate ambassadors of Jackie's legacy of community service. Committed to this cause, the foundation pursues its mission with the dignity, a sense of unity, and courageous leadership that were the hallmarks of Jackie Robinson's life. There are currently approximately 266 JRF scholars and fellows enrolled in 93 colleges and universities, representing 33 states and the District of Columbia. On the Internet: The Jackie Robinson Foundation, www.jackierobinson.org.
Jackie Robinson ended decades of discrimination against blacks in baseball, when he signed a contract with the Brooklyn Dodgers organization in 1945. After a successful season in 1946 with its farm club, the Montreal Royals, Robinson became the first black player in the Major Leagues. Highlights of his baseball career include: Rookie of the Year (1947), National League Most Valuable Player Award (1949), and induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame (1962). Robinson retired from baseball in 1957 after helping the Dodgers win six pennants and one World Series. Robinson's history-making achievements in baseball were only part of his extraordinary life and legacy.
Jackie Robinson's outspoken leadership on issues of civil and human rights continued throughout his years as a corporate executive, civil servant and major figure in national politics. Deeply concerned with the struggle for civil rights, after leaving baseball, Robinson traveled extensively to raise funds for the SCLC, leading to close relationships with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other prominent leaders. His concern with politics led him to influence leaders such as Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Nixon; and Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Nelson Rockefeller.
For those media members interested in attending Ms. Robinson's keynote on Thursday, Jan. 25, please contact Megan Barrett in advance by phone at 206.352.4215, or by email at mbarrett@casey.org.
Casey Family Programs celebrates the 41st anniversary of its founding by United Parcel Service visionary Jim Casey, who dedicated his life to building stronger, safer communities for children, youth and families.