Robyn S. Hadley has gone from being a corporate CEO to the founder of a grassroots education program that has earned White House recognition for getting more high school students into colleges and careers. On Feb. 24, she stepped into her new role as associate vice chancellor and director of the John B. Ervin Scholars Program at Washington University.
The late James E. McLeod served as director of the program from its inception in 1986 until his death on Sept. 6, 2011. Hadley will be the program’s second director.
“Robyn is passionate about education, young people and creating opportunities for success for students,” said Sharon Stahl, vice chancellor for students. “She understands the difference that a community of scholarship, leadership and service, like the Ervin Scholars Program, can provide for a student coming into a university community like Washington University.”
Hadley founded the “What’s After High School?” program in the Alamance-Burlington School System, a low-income district in North Carolina where Hadley grew up and her mother worked as a school secretary for 40 years.
In the program, teachers begin talking to children in elementary school about college and options after high school. It also teaches parents how to help their children through the college admissions process and through college.
In 2012, the White House recognized Hadley as a “Champion of Change” for her work, which has increased scholarship dollars and college enrollment in the mostly rural Alamance-Burlington district.
Wash. U.’s search committee knew finding someone to fill McLeod’s role would not be easy.
The committee members were looking for a candidate who could mentor current scholars, collaborate across multiple departments, foster strong engagement with the Ervin alumni base and establish a clear vision for the future, said Matt Holton, Ervin Class of ’95, who served as a committee co-chair.
Hadley fit that bill, said Holton, a senior business leader at MasterCard Inc.
Holton said that Hadley is “someone who has numerous good ideas but is as interested in ideas coming from others, and someone who has tremendous drive and enthusiasm for the work that she does.”
The Ervin Scholars Program awards scholarships to incoming Washington University freshmen who have demonstrated exceptional intellectual and leadership achievements and have shown a strong commitment to community service and bringing diverse people together.
The full scholarship is renewable for all four years of undergraduate study and includes a stipend to cover living expenses.
The program is named for John B. Ervin, who was the dean of the School of Continuing Education (now University College in Arts & Sciences) from 1968-1977 and was the first African-American dean at Wash. U. Originally the scholarship program was developed specifically for African-American students; in 2004 the program was opened to any student willing to foster a more diverse environment. McLeod explained that a 2003 U.S. Supreme Court ruling made it “no longer possible for Washington University to lawfully operate this scholarship program on a race-exclusive basis.”
As an undergraduate herself, Hadley was a member of the prestigious Morehead-Cain Scholars, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) – a program with similarities to the Ervin Scholars Program. It was then she started volunteering to guide students through the college application process.
Like many Ervin Scholars, Hadley was a first-generation college student. By the time she graduated from high school, she had full-scholarship offers to Harvard and Duke universities, as well as to UNC. She decided to stay close to the rural community she grew up in and benefit from UNC’s Morehead-Cain Scholars program, she said. She believes the program’s support and networking opportunities prepared her to be a competitive Rhodes Scholar candidate. Landing the Rhodes fellowship meant that she would live overseas for the first time to attend Oxford University.
“When I got to Oxford, it was huge transition,” she said. “I was homesick at first.”
That quickly faded as she became close with her fellow basketball team members and colleagues. U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice was the team’s point guard and remains a good friend.
When she left Oxford in 1988, Hadley joined JAMNC Export Import Group in Hampton, Va., a company owned by the family of a fellow Oxford student. Years later, she became president and chief operating officer.
Throughout her corporate life, she continued her volunteer work at UNC, critiquing college essays and advising families about colleges.
Then in 2004, Hadley returned to North Carolina to take care of her mother, who was sick (but since has recovered). While she was home, the owner of JAMNC died and Hadley had to make a decision. She could have continued on in the business, but she saw some needs in the local school system and in church.
Hadley said, “I asked myself if there was a way to transition from a volunteer and advocate to working more in the nonprofit arena or in public or private education.”
That year, she and a group of friends founded “YES I CAN,” a one-time, faith-based college access program at Children’s Chapel United Church of Christ in Graham, N.C. It won the Howard N. Lee Institute for Equity and Opportunity in Education’s “Champion in Equity and Opportunity in Education” award. The program has continued to grow and will celebrate its 10th anniversary this summer.
That program led her to talks with her former school district about what became the “What’s After High School?” initiative. Hadley launched the program in 2005 with the superintendent’s support and started looking for funding from private donors, foundations and the U.S. Department of Education. Over time, the program received enough funding to hire an operations staff of four.
Now Hadley is looking forward to working with the Ervin Scholars Program.
“What excites and inspires me is the opportunity to nurture students, and in words that I’ve read continually about Wash. U., to get to know them ‘by name and by story,’” Hadley said. “The Ervin Scholars Program and the university can help students to become what they never dreamed they could be.”
