Leonard Robinson
Leonard H. Robinson, Jr. had more than 30 years working and living experience in international affairs, with Africa and Asia as regions of specialization. He served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, from 1983-85 where he was responsible for economic and commercial policy. And, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State from 1990-1993, he was responsible for U.S. policy toward Central and West Africa. His other portfolios for Africa included Narcotics, Terrorism, Democracy and the Peace Corps. He also directed U.S. diplomatic initiatives to help in the resolution of the Liberia civil war.
Robinson spent six years as President of the U.S. African Development Foundation, established by Congress in 1981 to provide official assistance to community-based organizations and grassroots enterprises throughout Africa. During his tenure, annual Congressional appropriations increased from an initial $1m to $17m. He also worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development, the Battelle Memorial Institute, and the Peace Corps where he served as a volunteer, Associate Director for India and as Director of Minority Recruitment for the United States.
A native of North Carolina, Robinson received a BA from Ohio State University; and attended graduate school at the State University of New York, Binghamton, and post graduate school at the American University, Washington, DC, and Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government. He was the recipient of two honorary doctoral degrees.
He was professor of African Studies at the University of Massachusetts --Boston, and Senior Fellow at the Center for Development and Democracy at the John W. McCormack Institute, the University's think tank. He founded LHR International Group, Inc. in 1997, a political policy consulting firm specializing in the analysis of U.S. foreign policy for the heads of state and foreign ministers of African and Asian nations.
Mr. Robinson and colleagues founded The Africa Society in 2001 as a direct outgrowth of the historic National Summit on Africa. The mission of the Africa Society is to educate and inform all Americans about the great and diverse continent of Africa. With a grant supported by the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the National Summit on Africa was established in 1997 to educate all Americans about Africa, to build a broad constituency of support for Africa in the United States, and to formulate a National Policy Plan of Action on U.S.-Africa Relations in the Twenty-First Century-- the Summit held a historic conference on Africa in Washington, D.C., February 16-20, 2000. Over 8,000 Americans from every state, as well as continental Africans, attended. Robinson served as President and CEO of the Africa Society of The National Summit on Africa.
Robinson was the author of several articles and publications, and served on a number of boards and advisory councils including the National Peace Corps Association, and Discovery Channel's Global Education Fund. In 2005, Mayor Anthony Williams appointed and swore in Robinson to the Board of Trustees of the University of the District of Columbia. A frequent speaker, he made presentations at World Affairs Councils throughout the U.S., the Economic Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at UNC-Chapel Hill, UMass-Boston, Eastern Connecticut University, UCLA, The Monterey Language Institute and the Miller Center at he University of Virginia. The University of Virginia appointed Robinson as its first Diplomat Scholar in Residence in August 2004. He was listed in Who's Who in America from 1985 to 2005.
On July 25, 2006, Leonard passed early in the morning at Washington Hospital Center following a short illness.
