Roslyn
Brock will never forget her first NAACP regional meeting. It was 1985, and she
was serving on the organization’s national board while still an undergrad at
Virginia Union University. Seated with attorney Oliver Hill of the
historic legal team that brought the Brown v. Board of Education lawsuit and
civil rights attorney Samuel W. Tucker, Roslyn was awestruck. “It was
incredible to be a college student and see them work their magic. They had such passion.”
No, it’s
not a Japanese garden: It’s Roslyn on the idyllic grounds of Bon Secours Health
System, where she's director of system fund development.
These days,
Roslyn is working her own magic as vice chairman of the NAACP. She’s been a
member of the organization since her freshman year in college; she was
unanimously elected to the position in 2001—the youngest (and first
female) vice chairman in its 98-year history.
A native of
Fort Washington, MD, Roslyn has been involved with two things since she was a
teenager: health care and the NAACP. She’s in her early forties now, and the
two are still integral to her career. “Health care is my passion. It says in my
high school and college yearbooks that I would be a health service
administrator,” she says.
Roslyn speaking at NIH during its 2006 Black History Month program.
After
earning a master’s in health services administration from GW, Roslyn spent 10
years at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, where she focused on health care and
earned an MBA from the Kellogg School at Northwestern. She’s helped make health
care a civil rights issue: The NAACP now has 38 state health committees that
focus on disparity issues, universal access and HIV/AIDS.
When she
was just 30, Roslyn’s life changed. In 1995, her husband died from a blood clot
in his lungs. “After that, I needed to get grounded again. I needed to come
home.” Roslyn returned to Maryland in 2001 and joined Bon
Secours Health System, a Catholic health care ministry headquartered in
Marriottsville. She provides strategic direction for 13 hospital
foundations in seven states. “I am able to leverage my political and social
network to impact life here in health care,” she tells Bisnow.
Roslyn
speaks at Augusta State University for the 2005 Martin Luther King Jr. program.
“I’ve been
watching you,” the iconic CME Presiding Bishop and former NAACP vice chairman
William H. Graves told Roslyn one afternoon. “You’re still rough around the
edges, but I’ve been watching you.” Bishop Graves nominated Roslyn to be his
successor; Myrlie Evers-Williams endorsed her and she was elected unanimously.
Without Bishop Graves’ urging, Roslyn says she never would have run for the
post. “It’s my responsibility to do that for someone else, to pass it along.”
Roslyn will
be running for chairman of the board in 2009, right as the NAACP plans to
move its national headquarters from Baltimore to Washington. (Current Chairman
Julian Bond says he will step down after the centennial celebrations.) If
elected, Roslyn would become the 4th woman to chair the organization. “In the
past, most of the leadership of the civil rights movement and the NAACP were male-dominated and male-led.
But I see light,” Roslyn says with a smile.
