Effie Robinson (January 7, 1920 – May 23, 2003) was a social worker and public housing director. She was the first African American graduate from the

UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare The School of Social Welfare of the University of California, Berkeley, was established June 1, 1944 and is located in Haviland Hall on the UC Berkeley campus. Its focus is to prepare graduates to become agents of social change through direct pra ...

Biography

Effie Robinson was born in

Healdsburg, California Healdsburg is a city located in Sonoma County, in California's Wine Country. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 11,254. Owing to its three most important wine-producing regions (the Russian River, Dry Creek, and Alexander Valley ...

, January 7, 1920. A 1943 magna cum laude graduate of

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

, Robinson was the first African American graduate from the UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare. She was a member of

Alpha Kappa Alpha Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. () is the first intercollegiate historically African American sorority. The sorority was founded on January 15, 1908, at the historically black Howard University in Washington, D.C., by a group of sixteen stud ...

Art Agnos Arthur Christ Agnos (born Arthouros Agnos; [] September 1, 1938) is an American politician. He served as the 39th Mayor of San Francisco, mayor of San Francisco, California from 1988 to 1992 and as the Regional Head of the United States Department ...

worked as her assistant when she was appointed, in 1964 by !ayor

John F. Shelley John Francis Shelley (September 3, 1905 – September 1, 1974) was a U.S. politician. He served as the 35th mayor of San Francisco, from 1964 to 1968, the first Democrat elected to the office in 50 years, and the first in an unbroken lin ...

to be the

San Francisco Housing Authority The San Francisco Housing Authority is a local public housing authority for the City and County of San Francisco that was established in 1938 after the Housing Act of 1937 was enacted by the U.S. Federal Government. The agency is responsible for t ...

Director of Human Relations and Tenant Services. In 1945, Robinson went to work for the

Family Service Agency of San Francisco The Felton Institute, formerly known as the Family Service Agency of San Francisco (FSA), was founded in 1889 as Associated Charities. FSASF is the oldest nonsectarian, nonprofit charitable social-services provider in the City and County of San F ...

. Her first job was as a casework supervisor and by 1956, Robinson was appointed Executive Director. Robinson died when she was 83 at her time in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco.

Awards and honors

Robinson was awarded the Daniel Koshland Jr. Award in Social Welfare in 1974 by the

National Association of Social Workers The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) is a professional organization of social workers in the United States. NASW has about 120,000 members. The NASW provides guidance, research, up to date information, advocacy, and other resources f ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Effie 1920 births 2003 deaths San Francisco State University alumni American social workers UC Berkeley School of Social Welfare alumni African-American people