By Mike Cason
Gov. Kay Ivey today named longtime business owner Stacia Robinson as the next director of the Alabama Office of Minority Affairs.
Robinson will replace Nichelle Nix, who is leaving the job after six years to practice law in the private sector.
Robinson comes to the job from BeneChoice Companies, LLC, which manages employee benefits programs for employers. Robinson is also district manager of Colonial Life Insurance Company. Robinson recently sold the Business Network International franchise that she owned for 25 years. Ivey described Robinson as a champion for small businesses.
“From looking to engaging our students at Alabama’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities to supporting minority and women-owned businesses to ensuring every Alabamian has the opportunity to provide for their families, we are setting important and necessary goals and having Stacia at the helm of the Alabama Office of Minority Affairs will be instrumental,” Ivey said in a press release. “I am sure that good things are in store for our folks.”
Robinson has been a member of the Industrial Development Board of Montgomery and was the first African American woman to sit on the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, according to the governor’s office.
“I am looking forward to serving the great state of Alabama in this role on behalf of women and minorities,” Robinson said in the press release. “I hope to bring my own experiences and curiosity of others to the role as this Administration strives to make ‘Alabama the Beautiful’ also Alabama the better for its citizens, especially for its women and all minorities.”
Robinson is a Denver native who spent seven years in the Air Force as a communications-computer officer. Robinson holds a master’s degree in counseling and human development from Troy University in Montgomery and a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Spelman College.
Robinson takes over as Office of Minority Affairs director Jan. 1, ahead of the Jan. 16 inauguration day to begin Ivey’s new four-year term. Nix issued a statement about her departure.
“It has been an absolute honor to lay the foundation for the Alabama Office of Minority Affairs and to serve the people of Alabama for more than six years in this role,” Nix said. “I am truly grateful to Governor Ivey for giving me this tremendous opportunity and look forward to all the good things I know are still to come from the Ivey Administration.”
Robinson is the second new cabinet member Ivey has named for her new administration. The governor picked Curtis Stewart to replace Mac Gipson as administrator of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. Gipson is retiring after 12 years on the job.
