AARP Chicago's CharTay Robinson Talks With First Lady

Prior to becoming the Associate State Director – Advocacy & Outreach, for AARP, Chartay Robinson, developed and honed her community engagement skills in the underserved communities on the south and west sides of Chicago. A Chicago native, her twenty-two-year career at academic medical institutions began in 2004 at the University of Chicago Medical Center in the Office of Community Affairs. During this time, under the leadership of the former First Lady of the U.S., then Vice President of Community Affairs, Chartay developed a better understanding of the concept of the Servant Leader. Chartay’s ability to bring people of diverse backgrounds together to help solve health problems that challenged communities of color was obvious to all that she encountered. She helped foster the relationships between UCMC leadership and community physicians from Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) that resulted in the formation of the Southside Healthcare Collaborative.

The Institute for Translational Medicine at UCMC quickly appreciated Chartay’s relationship- building skills and invited her to join their team in 2008 as a Community Program Development Specialist. During her tenure, she co-authored a paper, Utilizing Forums to Increase Community Awareness and Engagement with Academic Medical Institutions. She mastered the vernacular of the community and the academic medical institutions, allowing her to serve and lead them both. In 2018, she left the University of Chicago Medical Center for The Institute of Translational Medicine at Rush University Medical Center. As Leader of the Rush University Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Task Force for Research, she once again sought to improve the relationship between the community and the medical institution by creating a strategic plan to improve and increase diverse study participants. While she worked to engage the community, she also pursued her education, earning her Bachelor’s degree in Business Healthcare Management from Capella University. She lives in Chicago and possesses a multitude of interests, including travel, family life and yes, being a diehard Chicago Bears football fan. Bringing institutions and the community together is work that she often refers to as her calling. Chartay realizes that as a mother of two adult children and new grandmother; she has a vested interest in the present and future health and wellbeing of all marginalized communities.