Rob was born in central Georgia, raised in southwest Virginia and earned his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Brown University. As a result, he’s taken many hours to contemplate whether he is a Southerner or Northerner at heart (his accent is neutral but he’ll inject an occasional “y’all” for good measure).
After graduating from Brown in 2008, Rob spent two election cycles campaigning in Virginia before moving with his now-wife to Louisiana, where she taught third-graders as a corps member of Teach for America.
Down in the bayou, Rob secured a leadership position with a non-profit organization that provides tutoring and mentoring services to low-income public school students in Baton Rouge. The experience was transformative for Rob: although he was always deeply concerned with social justice issues, his time working with students, teachers and school leaders fed his growing belief that a good education is the key to positively changing just about everything. He solidified that belief while studying education policy at Georgetown University, where he earned a master’s degree in public policy in 2013.
Rob currently lives with his wife and talkative orange cat in Washington, D.C.
I aspire to be like President Lyndon Johnson. Here’s why:
To me, LBJ represents what imperfect humans can accomplish despite our faults. President Johnson made plenty of bad decisions that rightfully taint his presidency, but he also brokered the passage of the 20th century’s most important social legislation—the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act—even with the knowledge that it would devastate his party for a generation. Moreover, LBJ stayed rooted in his upbringing of modest means and his experience teaching underprivileged students as he pushed for anti-poverty legislation and, for the first time, focused the nation’s attention on the inequities in our public schools.
The people. I’ve heard it’s rare to like, admire and be inspired by everyone you work with, but I genuinely feel that way at 50CAN.
I was lucky enough to attend excellent public schools from kindergarten through high school. And in Baton Rouge, I worked directly with public school leaders to improve educational outcomes for low-income public school students.
Hanging pictures. I can never get them straight. We’ve lived in our current apartment for three months and have yet to hang a single photo or painting.
The college commencement ceremony is one of the most exciting and gratifying moments a young person can experience. Unfortunately, so many of our kids are not making it to this point. Fixing that starts with dramatically improving pre-K-12 education—that’s why I’m working at 50CAN.