NCLM Southern City Volume 71, Issue 2, 2021

SOUTHERN CITY QUARTER 2 2021 30 Jennifer Robinson: Local Leadership as a ‘Way of Life’ FACING ISSUES HEAD-ON AND WITH FAMILY IN MIND, THE CARY COUNCILMEMBER’S PUBLIC SERVICE MINDSET WAS ON FULL DISPLAY THIS PAST YEAR. JACK CASSIDY NCLM Communications Associate “This could be a really quiet year.” This is what Cary Councilmember Jennifer Robinson was told upon taking the NCLM Presidency in 2020, just at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a prediction that turned out to be wildly incorrect. Rather, it was the early stages of a historically loud year, for both the state and nation alike. The forecast failed for reasons both in and out of Robinson’s con- trol. For the world at large, Robinson’s tenure tracked landscape- changing events. The day voting for the NCLM Board of Directors ended was the day Jennifer Robinson effectively became League President, and that was on May 25, 2020—the same day George Floyd was killed in Minneapolis. The weeks that followed featured what is believed to be the largest protest movement in American history, and the larger social movement has hardly diffused in the year since. There is also COVID. Though Robinson took over with the pan- demic underway, the impact was—and is still—developing polit- ically, socially, and economically. Robinson was in charge when cities and towns desperately needed direct federal aid to support their communities, and she was in charge a year later when that aid was received. She oversaw stay-at-home guidance, then mask guidance, and finally, vaccine guidance. Then, elections. Reces- sions. A census. Waves and second waves and third waves of infections. In her command, however, was an ability to maneuver. Robinson did so guiding both a statewide organization and the Town of Cary, where she’s served on the council for 22 years. She did so through an active approach. In the choice between simply bearing the terrible year quietly, and seeing the terrible year as a genera- tional opportunity, Robinson chose the latter. “I did not take this role to sit back and let it pass,” Robinson said. “On the whole, people will look back and say, ‘Wow, what a year of sacrifice and loss in our communities,’ and that is right. But with that being said, there were also some major benefits.” It’s an approach Robinson has employed her entire professional life, and not always from a position of authority. ˘˘˘ The themes that pervade Robinson’s story are action and family. They’re present in almost every major chapter, including her move to North Carolina in the first place.