Verdis LeVar Robinson
Interim Executive Director
National Issues Forums Institute
Verdis LeVar Robinson is currently the interim executive director for the National Issues Forums Institute. Formerly an associate of the Kettering Foundation specializing in deliberative democracy in community colleges and interfaith institutions, Robinson was also the national director for The Democracy Commitment, the director for community college engagement at Campus Compact, and a tenured assistant professor of history and African American studies at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, for 10 years. Robinson holds degrees in history, African American studies, music performance, and faith formation pedagogy from the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport, SUNY Buffalo State University, Boston University, and Meadville Lombard Theological School (IL). Robinson is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister and serves as the executive director of the Montpelier Community Gospel Choir and the minister for growth for the First Unitarian Church of Rochester, New York.