Robyn Blumner
Robyn Ellen Blumner (born May 14, 1961) is an American attorney, civil rights expert[1] and the current president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the secular educational organization Center for Inquiry (CFI) and executive director of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science. She holds a J.D. degree and worked for several years as director of local affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union advocating for civil liberties and civil rights before becoming a newspaper columnist and editorial writer in Florida.[2]
Robyn Blumner
Journalist, author, president and CEO at Center for Inquiry
Early life and education[edit]
Blumner was born May 14, 1961,[3] in Queens, New York City. Her parents were teachers and politically active union members, her mother being a registered Democrat, her father being an independent voter who occasionally voted Republican.[4] Her grandmother had been awarded a law degree but had not practised, as women in those days were unable to obtain an apprenticeship to practice law.[4]
Both her parents were Jewish, with her father actively practising. In an interview with the Richard Dawkins Foundation she states that she began questioning religion around the age of 11, stopped attending Hebrew school and did not have a Bat Mitzvah. Nevertheless, she acknowledges a shared Jewish identity and said: "A belief in god is not essential to being Jewish. Humanist values were far more important than religious practice to Jewish identity."[5]
She was raised in Glen Cove, Long Island, and became interested in politics from a young age, leafleting for Senator George McGovern during his 1972 presidential campaign and organizing the Young Democrats while at school.
In 1982 she was awarded a B.A. degree in Industrial and labor relations from Cornell University. From there, she went to New York University School of Law and in 1985 completed a J.D. degree.[3] While studying for that degree, she began working for the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees and the Staten Island Rapid Transit Operating Authority, where she became assistant director of labor-management relations.[4]
Around the same time, Blumner first became active as a volunteer in the American Civil Liberties Union where she became absorbed by The Reproductive Freedom Project and soon decided that civil liberties was a field she wanted to pursue.[4]
Career[edit]
Civil liberties[edit]
From 1987, Blumner held the position of executive director at the American Civil Liberties Union In Utah[6][7] where she frequently acted as spokesperson on topics such as freedom of speech (including for white supremacists such as Aryan Nations)[8] and abortion rights.[9]
From 1989,[9] she was director of the ACLU for Florida[10] where she campaigned on various civil liberties issues such as reproductive rights, right to demonstrate, First Amendment rights and sexual discrimination.[9] That organization gave her the Gardner W. Beckett, Jr. Civil Liberties Award in 2001 and the Irene Miller Vigilance in Journalism Award in 2010 to honor her work.[11]
Controversially, while with the ACLU, Blumner stated she is against affirmative action (also referred to as positive discrimination), saying: "I can no longer sit silently while my cohorts defend a discriminatory policy that favors groups of people solely on their gender, skin color or national origin...An advantage granted me due to my sex demeans my individuality, reducing me to a walking immutable characteristic."[9]
Journalism[edit]
From 1998 to 2014, Blumner was an opinion writer for the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times), was syndicated in papers across the country[12] and is described as a columnist and editorial writer.[13] In 2012 Blumner, along with John Hill, Joni James and Tim Nickens, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for their work at the Tampa Bay Times in conducting an extensive investigation of a state governor and the effects of his inexperience on the state.[14]
Blumner is an author and contributor to several publications, including Center for Inquiry in association with the Council for Secular Humanism[15] and Time magazine[16] in her capacity as CEO and president of CFI, and for her experience in civil liberties. She has contributed essays and forewords to several published works by other authors.[15]
From 2008 to 2009, she was also a regular contributor to Huffington Post.[13]
Personal life[edit]
Blumner describes herself as an atheist,[26] a secularist and a liberal.[5] She is married and lives in Washington, DC.[12]