Robbyn Lewis serves the people of the 46th legislative district in the Maryland General Assembly.
Proud Baltimorean
Robbyn has lived in Baltimore for more than 20 years. She is an international public health leader with a global view and a heart for home.
She is the first African American — the first person of color — to represent our district. Robbyn is also the only state legislator who is car-free by choice; she gets around by walking, transit, biking and rideshare.
A focus on public health
Robbyn grew up in the suburbs of Gary, Indiana; her father was a physician and her mother, a teacher of children with hearing impairment. Inspired by her family’s legacy of community service, compassion and pride, Robbyn knew early that she would pursue a career in health care.
After studying in France and Taiwan, Robbyn served her country in the U.S. Peace Corps. Assigned to a maternal and child health clinic in Niger, in west Africa, she worked alongside local nurses at a rural health clinic, conducting malnutrition surveillance, providing pre-natal care to mothers, and delivering life-saving immunizations to babies at risk of measles and other deadly, preventable illnesses.
Following graduate training in public health, Robbyn applied her scientific, cross-cultural and public health skills on three continents, working to prevent infectious diseases like tuberculosis, malaria and HIV/AIDS. Her work in cervical cancer prevention contributed to global policy change by the World Health Organization, saving the lives of women in under-resourced settings.
Back in Baltimore, Robbyn worked at the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange to roll out the Affordable Care Act. That experience gave her hands-on experience with issues related to health equity, access and affordability – issues that now form the foundation of her legislative leadership.
A community leader
For two decades, Robbyn has been a community leader in the Patterson Park neighborhood. Her accomplishments include:
- Helping establish the Patterson Park Public Charter School
- Leading an award-winning greening movement that mobilized hundreds of volunteers and increased her neighborhood’s tree canopy by 20%.
- Founding the Red Line Now PAC in 2011, Maryland’s first and only grassroots political action committee dedicated to fighting for transit investment in Baltimore.
- Establishing the Livable Streets Coalition, which aims to reduce pedestrian injury in predominantly African American and Latino neighborhoods in east Baltimore.
State Delegate
Robbyn joined the Maryland General Assembly in 2017 and has served her District 46 neighbors as their State Delegate for 5 years.
See Robbyn’s Priorities page for more information about Robbyn’s work in the Maryland General Assembly.