Rachel Robinson

Following the death of her husband in 1972, Robinson incorporated the Jackie Robinson Development Corporation, which was founded to build and manage housing for people of moderate and low incomes. A year later, Ms. Robinson created the Jackie Robinson Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide college scholarships and leadership training. A career nurse, Robinson earned her masters degree in psychiatric nursing from New York University and worked as a researcher at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Department of Social and Community Psychiatry. Robinson then became Director of Nursing for the Connecticut Mental Health Center and an Assistant Professor of Nursing at Yale University. After years at the head of the Foundation's board, Robinson stepped down as chairwoman in 1996.