Robinson Earns NOARK Diversity Champion Award

Photo Submitted

Charles F. Robinson, vice chancellor for diversity and community

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.