Sharon Robinson
Sharon Robinson is an author and educational consultant for Major League Baseball. As founder and consultant, Sharon, MLB, and Scholastic co-manage Breaking Barriers: In Sports, In Life a baseball-themed national character education curriculum designed to empower students to face obstacles in their lives. The program includes a national essay contest for students in grades 4-9 and throughout MLB’s RBI program. Each year, thousands of students write an essay about how they used the values demonstrated by Jackie Robinson to overcome their challenges. Essay winners are celebrated in their schools and in Major League ballparks. Since 1997, the program has reached over 34 million students and 4.6 million educators in the continental United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Ms. Robinson is an award winning children’s book author. She has published several widely praised books about her father, baseball legend Jackie Robinson, including Jackie’s Nine: Jackie Robinson’s Values to Live By, Promises to Keep: How Jackie Robinson Changed America, Jackie Robinson: American Hero (children’s biography), and picture books Testing the Ice, illustrated by Kadir Nelson and Jackie’s Gift: A True Story of Christmas, Hanukkah, illustrated by EB Lewis. Sharon’s other books include novels and picture books: Safe at Home and Slam Dunk!, Under The Same Sun, (2014 Parents’ Choice Award Winner), and The Hero Two Doors Down (2017 Finalist 48th NAACP Image Awards; 2017-18 Sunshine State Award Winner). Prior to joining MLB, Sharon had a 20-year career as a nurse-midwife and educator. She taught in such prestigious universities as: Yale, Columbia, Howard, and Georgetown and is Vice Chairman of the Jackie Robinson Foundation. Ms. Robinson received her Bachelor’s degree from Howard University and Master’s from Columbia. She went on to earn a post-Master’s Certificate in Teaching from the School of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania and received honorary doctorates from: Medaille College, Dowling College, and Monmouth College. Sharon lives in Delray Beach, Florida.
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Programming descriptions are generated by participants and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of SXSW.