Emonie Robinson, MSW (she/her, they/them) is a scholar, educator and advocate entering her first year of the doctoral program of Social Welfare in the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs. Her research centers on social justice issues with particular focus on reproductive justice and the carceral system’s impact on Black communities. She is interested in examining how hospitals and healthcare systems perpetuate carcerality and contribute to the criminalization of Black birthing individuals.
Robinson recently earned her Master of Social Welfare from Luskin. During her graduate studies, she served as an Intern Data Analyst for the Human Services Department of the City of Santa Monica. In this role, she conducted community needs assessments and resource mapping. She was the first MSW student in the Social and Economic Justice concentration to participate in UCLA’s Racial Justice Pilot Program and proposed a racial justice lens to support the Human Services Department.
Robinson is involved with the Million Dollar Hoods project and contributes to research that maps the costs of incarceration in Los Angeles and highlights the disproportionate impact on Black and Brown communities. She is also a Teaching Assistant in UCLA’s Department of African American Studies and a peer mentor for the Academic Advancement Program’s (AAP) Transfer Summer Program. As a former elementary school teacher and educator, she has facilitated workshops and led discussions around equity and racial justice. Her pedagogy is rooted in the frameworks of Paulo Freire and bell hooks that emphhasize mutual learning, critical consciousness, and educational justice.
Beyond academia, Robinson serves as the MSW Student Board Member for the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) where she represents student interests at the national level. In this role, she advocates for equitable policies and contributes to the organization’s initiatives to advance social justice and support the next generation of social workers.
Emonie was born and raised in Bakersfield, CA. Her advocacy journey began in the bay area at Chabot College, where she became a student leader and transfer student advocate. As an undergraduate at UCLA, she served as the Afrikan Student Union’s (ASU) Transfer Coordinator and Community College Partnerships Mentor where she supported the needs of TAY foster youth, Black transfer students, undocumented students, and system-impacted students navigating higher education. She graduated during the pandemic with a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and African American Studies.