Rashad Robinson

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After graduating from Marymount University,^[6] Robinson held leadership roles at GLAAD,^[7] the Right to Vote Campaign,^[8][9] and FairVote.^[10]

While at GLAAD, Robinson served as Senior Director of Media Programs, leading the organization's advocacy and major media campaigns.^[7] He led dozens of campaigns pursuing criminal justice, voting rights, racial equity, gay rights and economic reform.^[11]

In 2011, Rashad Robinson became the president of Color of Change,^[11][12] an advocacy organization founded after Hurricane Katrina with the purpose of assisting black communities in America.

During Robinson's tenure as president, Color Of Change expanded to four offices in New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Oakland, California.^[6]

Robinson organized many of the organization's initiatives, including a campaign to pull funding from the American Legislative Exchange Council and the Black Tech Agenda, which works to create racial justice tech policies and prevent algorithm discrimination.^[13][14] Color Of Change helped protect the principle of net neutrality by pushing the FCC to reclassify broadband as a common carrier service.^[15] The organization's Winning Justice campaign pushed prosecutors to reduce incarceration, end the use of money bail, and change sentencing schemes under which hundreds of thousands of Black people are imprisoned in the US.^[16] The group has also persuaded businesses, including Mastercard and PayPal, to stop accepting payments from white nationalist groups,^[17] to refrain from sitting on President Trump's Business Council. Color Of Change is credited with working with Silicon Valley companies, including Airbnb, Google and Facebook, to improve diversity inside their companies and address policies that harm Black users.^[18]

In 2020, Robinson launched the advertiser boycott of Meta Platforms and worked on police reform campaigns that resulted in assisting 8 million people.^[19][20] That June, Lady Gaga gave him access to her Instagram account in order to discuss racial justice, in honor of Juneteenth.^[11]

Robinson resigned as president after the National Labor Relations Board ruled in September 2024 that Color Of Change violated federal labor law.^[21]

In late 2024, he formed Rashad Robinson Advisors and set up a “Narrative Power” hub, which provides strategies and resources for creating cultural content.^[22]

In 2025, Robinson began hosting the “Freedom Table”, a monthly NewsOne series that discusses democracy protection and Black communities.^[23][24]

Robinson currently sits on the board of the Marguerite Casey Foundation.^[5] His book, From Presence to Power: How to Take On the Fights That Matter and Win, will be published and released by Random House Publishing Group in July 2026.^[25]