Robin Wonsley
Robin grew up in the Southside of Chicago and attended Carleton College, then completed a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship where she researched effective reintegration and reentry programs and policies for recently released women. Robin moved to Minneapolis in 2014.
Robin has worked as the Program Director at the University of Minnesota’s Women’s Center and as a fundraising consultant for non-profits including the YMCA, the Sexual Violence Center, and Alliance Housing Inc.
Robin worked as the Fundraising and Outreach Director of 15 Now Minnesota and was proud to be part of winning a $15 minimum wage in Minneapolis, the first such policy in the midwest.
Immediately prior to running for City Council, Robin worked as a Community Organizer with Education Minnesota (Ed MN), which represents over 87,000 educators across the state on initiatives that preserve and expand funding for K-12 public education and make our public schools more inclusive and equitable.
Robin earned a Mini MBA in Nonprofit Management from St. Thomas University in 2015. In 2018, Robin began her PhD program in Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Minnesota.
Robin is certified in Restorative Justice practices, such as Circle Keeping and Community Conferencing, and she served on the board of directors for the Restorative Justice Community Action Network (RJCA).
Robin has been involved in racial and economic justice organizing since the Minneapolis Police Department's murder of Jamar Clark in 2015 and has worked with a broad array of community and grassroots groups in efforts to increase community oversight and accountability over MPD, and co-organized a successful campaign to block anti-protest legislation prompted by the protests around the murder of Philando Castile. Following the murder of George Floyd in 2020, Robin worked with the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter to organize supply and food distribution. Later that fall, Robin was part of a coalition of local residents, small businesses, and community groups to successfully block the relocation of the 3rd Precinct Police station, and worked alongside Ward 2 residents and grassroots groups on the development and advocacy of the People’s Budget, a participatory and community-centered public safety proposal for the Minneapolis municipal budget.