Candidate Biography (submitted by candidate):

Dr. Gladys A. Robinson received her undergraduate degree from Bennett College for Women, and the Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from NC A&T State University.  She has certifications in Nonprofit Management, graduate of the UCLA/Johnson and Johnson Health Care Executives Program; consultant for Nonprofits in Organizational and Board Development is a professional grant writer and federal grant reviewer. She has 39 years of professional experience in health and human services (28 as Executive Director of Piedmont Health Services and Sickle Cell Agency, a community health center that addresses health conditions as sickle cell, HIV/AIDS, and education/prevention programs.

Since 2000 she has served on the UNC Board of Governors where she chairs the Personnel and Tenure Committee; was appointed by Gov. Perdue to NC Minority Health Advisory Council; is on Board of Directors NC Legislative Black Caucus Fdtn.  Community involvements: Democratic Women of Guilford County; Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau-Setrac Committee; Program co-chair Piedmont Triad Leadership Network (2003, 2004);1993 Leadership Greensboro; firstNC Commission on Education of Minority and At-Risk Students;  former trustee Bennett College; past board member, NC Teacher Academy; Vice President & founding board, Guilford Community AIDS Partnership; past chair – Healthserve Medical Center, past member, Women's Professional Forum; Life Member of PTA and NAACP.

A Sunday School Teacher at Providence Baptist Church she is also a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority. Gladys has received awards: 2006 McDonald's Rhythms of Triumph Award; 2005 Moses Cone Wesley Long Community Health Award; 2003 NAACP Medgar Evers Region III Award; 2000 Woman of Achievement in Health, Greensboro Commission on the Status of Women; 1994 Gso NAACP Woman of the Year; and is listed Woman Community Activist, International Civil Rights Museum.

Her husband, Ladison Robinson, is deceased, and she has two daughters, and 4 grandchildren.

Gladys Robinson plans to continue the stellar representation that has been so evident in Senate District 28. She will continue with innovative approaches to challenge the status quo and to bring about the kind of growth and change that North Carolina needs.
She will move forward with a comprehensive and detailed agenda.

Among many important state and, yes, national initiatives of her tenure, priorities will include: systemic and grassroots efforts to revive the North Carolina economy and specifically economic development in Guilford County. To work in tandem with principals at the local, state and national levels to provide affordable and accessible health care to all and to strengthen our public education system form Pre-kindergarten thru four year institutions.

She is aware that working families have seen their incomes decline severely and now face even deeper income losses. Losses in retirement savings accounts add to the woes of the general population while for many the inability to meet mortgage payments and the prospect of foreclosures deepens a "widening" hole.  North Carolina's unemployment rate is at a historic high and Gladys Robinson proposes to work on three major fronts of reduction of unemployment, growing the economy by investing in Small Businesses and attracting industries that produce jobs to spur economic growth.

Gladys Robinson is certain that children and the state can ill afford more years of neglect and indifference. At this defining moment in our history, North Carolina and America face few more urgent challenges than preparing our children to compete in a global economy.

A physically and mentally fit (healthy) individual goes to the job daily able to perform  her/his very best; physically healthy and mentally alert children go to school eager and ready to learn. This "fitness" is directly related to Healthcare.