Courtney Robinson, PhD
Dr. Robinson is the Founder of the Excellence and Advancement Foundation a non-profit organization that is dedicated to transforming how communities combat the school-to-prison pipeline and mass incarceration. Excellence and Advancement Foundation uses an ecosystems approach to provide prevention, intervention, and advocacy. The organization assists schools, justice systems, organizations, and corporations with critical, transformative, and restorative solutions to culture, race, school discipline, and incarceration.
Her research interests include the construction of the school-to-prison pipeline, racial equity, youth transitions from institutionalized school settings to community school settings, K-12 teacher preparation, the racial socialization of children and adolescents, and the impact of racial identity development on academic performance. Her newest publication is featured in the Black History Bulletin Vol83, No1. Black Lives Matter: from Enslavement to Engagement. Pursing Freedom: Dismantling the School to Prison Pipeline. She currently serves as an adjunct professor at Huston-Tillotson University. She appears in Seasons 3, 4, and 7 of BlackademicsTV on PBS and served as a Creative Consultant on Seasons 4, 5and 6 and Associate Producer for season 7. Dr. Robinson has also presented at SXSWedu in 2017 and 2018.
Dr. Robinson has served as an expert consultant for The Office of Capital Writs a capital post-conviction state agency charged with representing death sentenced persons in state post-conviction habeas corpus and related proceedings. She has consulted with Austin, Pflugerville, Round Rock, Portland, and Denver Independent School districts, Anti-Defamation League and Favor Delivery.
She serves on the Austin Rosewood Community Development Corporation Board, Greater Austin Area My Brother’s Keeper Violence Prevention & Second Chances Committee, The Criminal Justice Committee of the Mayor’s Task Force on Institutional Racism, Black Leaders collective, and Central Texas Collective on Racial Equity.
The Excellence and Advancement Foundation received Austin Independent School District’s Organization of the Year award in 2020. Dr. Robinson received the Huston-Tillotson University Faculty Member of the year award 2014-2015. She was awarded the Gold Standard Award from Black Excellence and the Purple and Gold Community Leadership Award from Omega Psi Phi, Inc. in 2017. She also received the Education Advocate of the Year award from the Greater Austin Area Black Chamber of Commerce in 2016. She was also awarded the Texas Equity Award in Juvenile Justice by The Center for the Elimination of Disproportionality and Disparities in 2015. Her civic engagement includes membership in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. and Leadership Austin. Dr. Robinson received her B.F.A. from Howard University, and both her M.Ed. and Ph.D. degrees in Education from the University of Texas at Austin.