The VCU Alumni Richmond Chapter and the VCU Alumni African American Alumni Council host a series of social justice-injustice panel discussions focused on spreading awareness and spawning conversations around topics of social justice and disparities concerning Black people and people of color.

The first panel dicussion features Tomikia LeGrande, Ed.D., VCU's vice president for strategy, enrollment management and student success, and 2019 National Teacher of the Year Rodney Robinson (M.Ed.’11/E). Faith Wilkerson, Ed.D. (B.S.’03/MC; M.Ed.’05/E; Ed.D.’15/E), moderates.

Register for Zoom link.

About the panelists

Tomikia LeGrande, Ed.D.: She is vice president for strategy, enrollment management and student success at VCU. Before joining the university, LeGrande served as vice president for strategic enrollment management at the University of Houston-Downtown and held prior roles there as dean of enrollment management, associate vice president for student affairs and enrollment management, and vice president for student affairs and enrollment management. LeGrande began her career as a graduate recruiter at North Carolina A&T State University. She then was appointed as director of graduate enrollment management at Winston-Salem State University, where she later became director of undergraduate admissions and associate vice chancellor for enrollment management. She earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Savannah State University, a master’s degree in chemistry from North Carolina A&T State University and an Ed.D. in higher education administration from Texas Tech University. She is also a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc.

Rodney Robinson (M.Ed.’11/E): Senior adviser for Richmond (Virginia) Public Schools and the 2019 National Teacher of the Year, Robinson is a 19-year teaching veteran. He became a teacher to honor his mother, who struggled to receive an education after being denied an education as a child due to segregation and poverty in rural Virginia. In 2015, Robinson started teaching at Virgie Binford Education Center, a school inside the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center, in an effort to better understand the school-to-prison pipeline. Robinson uses the knowledge he has gained from his students to develop alternative programs to prevent students from entering the school-to-prison pipeline. Robinson has been published three times by Yale University and has received numerous awards for his accomplishments in and out of the classroom, most notably the R.E.B. Award for Teaching Excellence. He is a member of Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s Education Compact Team and is working with city leaders and local colleges to recruit underrepresented male teachers into the field of education. He has also worked with Pulitzer Award-winning author James Foreman on developing curriculum units on race, class and punishment as a part of the Yale Teacher’s Institute. 

About the moderator

Faith Wilkerson, Ed.D. (B.S.’03/MC; M.Ed.’05/E; Ed.D.’15/E): She has worked at VCU for more than 15 years, managing many of the university’s annual traditions as well as overseeing student-centered diversity and inclusion programs. In 2019, she accepted the role of program director for the Minority Education Center housed within the VCU School of Education. She also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Richmond and sits on the VCU Alumni board of governors. She somehow does all of this while constantly working on her passion, UnlockingRVA.