Stevensville, MD
Robert is the President and CEO of the School-Based Health Alliance, where he directs all planning, policy, administration and resource development for the Alliance. His top goals for the Alliance are to expand its base of political and financial support, amplify its voice in the movement to create healthy, safe and secure schools and increase the number of all forms of SBHCs.

For the last four years, Robert has served as the founding executive director of the Secure Schools Alliance, where he positioned that organization as a leading voice in the school safety space and was a sought-after op-ed writer, presenter and moderator. He spent the prior twenty years working as an executive for youth programs and to improve public schools through Donorschoose.org, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools and the Community Education Building in Wilmington, DE. Throughout his career, he has served on the boards of over twenty nonprofits and has over twenty years of business experience, including twelve years as a director of a $4.5 billion federal savings bank.

Though born in Harlem and raised in the Bronx, Robert relates more to the 21 years he lived and raised his children in Texas, where he served as Associate Pastor at University Park UMC and chaired the Public Safety Committee of the City of University Park. Robert’s other government experience includes service as Chief of Staff to Congressman Harold Ford Sr., a stint in NYC Mayor Ed Koch’s Office of Economic Development, and as a paid staffer on numerous local, state and federal campaigns. A co-author of the 2018 STOP School Violence Act, Robert also helped recruit 23 nonprofits to support the bill. He helped organize the Congressional School Safety Caucus and has passed state and local legislation in four states.

A lifelong learner, Robert’s educational credentials include a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University, in American Political Culture, a Master of City and Regional Planning from Harvard University, with a focus on Political Analysis and Economic Development and a Master of Divinity from the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He holds Certificates in Clinical Pastoral Education (Chaplaincy) from Parkland Memorial Hospital, Charter School Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and Active Threat / Tactical Medical Response from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center.

Robert lives on the Chesapeake Bay on Kent Island, MD and has two grown children: his son Jeffrey, a graduate of Brown and Harvard Ed school, is an educator in North Carolina and a doctoral candidate at UNC. Jeffrey is married to Dr. Amanda Boyd and father of one-year-old daughter Noa. His daughter, Lindsey, is a graduate of Wesleyan University and manages public arts programs in Philadelphia. In his free time, Robert enjoys golf, tennis, hunting, fishing and being by the water.