Charles F. Robinson, vice chancellor for diversity and community
(Photo: Submitted)
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Charles F. Robinson, vice chancellor
for diversity and community at the University of Arkansas, received the NOARK
Individual Diversity Champion Award from the Northwest Arkansas Human Resources
Association. The award was presented during the 2013 Managers Conference hosted
by the NOARK in Springdale last week.
“It is a great honor to receive this award,” Robinson
said. “I am especially honored to know that members of the Northwest Arkansas
community recognize and support the work we are doing at the university and
beyond to make this a more inclusive and welcoming place.”
The NOARK Diversity Champion award recognizes outstanding
contributions from individuals, businesses and organizations in the Northwest
Arkansas region that exhibit leadership, innovation and tireless efforts to
bring diversity and cultural awareness to our region.
In presenting the
award during the ceremony, Barbara Lofton, director of diversity programs at
the Sam M. Walton College of Business, said that Robinson earned the award for
his “work promoting and ensuring diversity and inclusion for all persons; for
being a voice of those who cannot speak for themselves or others; for having
the courage and confidence to speak up for what is right when things are going
in the opposite direction; and for being a role model who demonstrates it is
not enough to make a difference but is more important to be a ‘difference
maker’.”
“Charles Robinson has been among the strongest voices
promoting our diversity goals at the University of Arkansas since he arrived on
campus in 1999,” said Chancellor G. David Gearhart. “He did so in the
classroom, as a history professor and then as director of the university’s
African and African American studies program. Since 2009 he has been in charge
of all university-wide efforts to enhance diversity — first as vice provost for
diversity and since July as vice chancellor for diversity and community. He is
doing an outstanding job, and I am very pleased that he has received this
award, which he richly deserves.”
NOARK is the Northwest Arkansas chapter of the Society of
Human Resources Management. Since Sept. 2, 1971, NOARK has been providing
service to the Human Resources community of Northwest Arkansas as a
not-for-profit organization with membership of more than 300 Human Resource
professionals, with over 155 companies represented.
Robinson promotes diversity through his extensive
community service, as a University of Arkansas administrator and professor, and
as a scholar. He is the author of four books: Dangerous Liaisons: Sex and Love in the Segregated South; Engaging
Missouri: An Epic Drama of Love, Honor and Redemption across the Color Line;
Forsaking All Others: A True Story
of Interracial Sex and Revenge in the 1880s South; and Remembrances in Black: Personal Perspectives
of the African American Experience at the University of Arkansas, 1940s-2000; in addition to numerous articles,
book chapters and reviews.