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Rob Black is committed to the principles of a liberal democracy: the fundamental right of persons to freely petition their government for grievances, and of the government's responsibility to actively improve the life of its citizens.
Rob has dedicated his life to these principles, not only here in the U.S. but in places where his passion has been urgently needed – and helped by his commitment.
Rob with President Clinton
In San Francisco he has worked to promote these principles and goals in our community, joining forces with his neighbors and friends to make a great city a little better. Rob believes that empowered individuals can change their community, and a government that listens and responds to its citizens can change lives.
As the Legislative Aide to Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier, Rob has helped craft numerous pieces of legislation, ranging from ethics reforms to the development of first-time home ownership opportunities. He has worked on policy initiatives targeting job creation in biotechnology and the arts and entertainment. Rob has also worked hard to ensure that neighborhoods and residents receive effective and efficient City services.
Chief James "Papa" Robinson
Throughout his life, Rob has been a dedicated public servant. He has served on student governments and grassroots organizations and worked for unions, political parties, election campaigns, and legislative government.
Originally from Lovington, a small town in Southeastern New Mexico, Rob is the youngest of four boys. He has always been surrounded by role models who have paved the way in public service. Even his grandfather, James “Papa” Robinson, was the Chief of Police and the Director of Public Safety in his hometown for more than 15 years. And Rob’s father, Ross Black, began as a teacher and coach and worked his way up to Superintendent of Public Schools – and eventually as Chair of the Lea County Commission. Two of his three brothers and their wives teach in New Mexico public schools. Rob’s other brother, Ronnie, enjoyed a 20-year career as a golfer on the PGA tour.
Rob harvesting pecans on his family's farm.
Throughout his youth, Rob volunteered with his local church and participated in school activities and athletics. While in high school he helped manage the local video store and worked on his family’s pecan farm. After graduating as valedictorian, Rob attended the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.
As a Resident Hall Advisor in the dormitories, Rob made campus life more entertaining by organizing free outdoor reggae concerts on campus. Within two years, Rob had established the Student Special Events organization, which employed seven full-time staffers and 200 part-time student employees and booked and produced concerts and speaking engagements for the university. Rob promoted such acts as Garth Brooks, James Taylor, the Violent Femmes, Ice-T and many others. Also at UNM, Rob established the Environmental Awareness Committee, which helped create university recycling programs, and was vice-president and co-founder of the Students International Relations Association, which conducted mentoring programs in local high schools. He also volunteered with Habitat for Humanity.
The Clinton/Gore rally in New Mexico
In 1991, Rob's life took an interesting turn. While volunteering for the Student Democrats during an event for Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign, Rob noticed hours before the engagement that there was no public address system, an oversight by the local campaign team. Rob called on his contacts in the entertainment community and was able to have a P.A. system up and running in time for the first speaker. His quick thinking led to a position as point person for all of the Clinton/Gore New Mexico campaign events, including a rally that drew 17,000 people, the largest political campaign event in the history of the state.
Election march in Zambia
After graduating summa cum laude in Political Science and delivering the undergraduate commencement address, Rob set out for Washington, D.C., where he landed a job with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening and expanding democracies worldwide. NDI was a great match for Rob’s special-event planning and political skills. For the next three years, Rob traveled to Latin America, Asia and Africa to monitor elections and provide support to new democratic institutions. In the fall of 1995, at the age of 26, Rob became the youngest country director in NDI’s history when he took over NDI’s Zambia program and helped create the Committee for a Clean Campaign.
A dedicated music lover and musician, Rob took a three-month hiatus from NDI during the fall of 1994 to work for Concerts for the Environment and take the post of tour manager for the Australian rock band Midnight Oil during its U.S. tour.
In June 1996, Rob returned to the United States and moved to Northern California to work for the California Democratic Party on President Clinton's re-election campaign. It was during the campaign that Rob first fell in love with San Francisco and Northern California. It is also when Rob met his future boss, Michela Alioto, when he directed the Get Out the Vote operation for her Northern California congressional campaign.
Rob with President Jimmy Carter in Paraguay
After the campaign, Rob accepted an offer from President Jimmy Carter’s “The Carter Center” to oversee an election observer delegation and election support program in Liberia. With no U.N. troops on the ground, Rob arrived only days after a cease-fire was declared in Liberia’s long-running civil war. Rob spent the next five months helping the Liberian Election Commission reach a consensus on election rules and regulations and organize a delegation of international election observers that included President Carter and Roselyn Carter as well as U.S. Senator Paul Simon and President Nicephore Soglo of Benin.
with President Jimmy Carter in Liberia
After the Liberian elections, Rob returned to San Francisco, moving into the Tenderloin district. He took a contract position with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) in Los Angeles to organize the non-union Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers television show and the Fox Kids network. Rob commuted to Los Angeles for seven months then moved there when the Guild offered him the position of Director of Special Projects, where he worked on film and television incentive legislation and directed the union’s contract campaign activities.
After almost two years with SAG, Rob returned to San Francisco in 1999 to attend the University of California, Hastings College of the Law where he was an editor on the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review, third-year Class Co-President, the recipient of Hastings’ Outstanding Student Leadership Award, and the CALA award for the highest grade in Campaign and Election law. Rob also participated in the Hastings Public Interest Law Foundation, the Associated Students of UC Hastings (ASUCH) and following the 9/11 attacks, organized a forum on the war on terror’s implications to civil liberties in America.
After passing the California State Bar in 2002, Rob went to work for Nielsen, Merksamer, Parrinello, Mueller & Naylor, LLP where he practiced ethics and government law for almost two years until Michela Alioto-Pier was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
During his time at City Hall, Rob was shop steward and member of the negotiating team for Local 21 and he currently serves on the Treasure Island Development Authority Citizens Advisory Committee and is active in the San Francisco Island Community Association.
His wife, Lisa, whom he married in 2005, is a practicing attorney on the board of directors of a homeless advocacy nonprofit located in the Tenderloin.
Rob wih a voter in District 6.
Over the past 15 years, Rob Black has worked to support Democratic principles and institutions in America and abroad. Rob is a union organizer, an election and human rights advocate, and an ethics lawyer with governmental legislative experience. Rob Black has the skills and the experience to be an effective voice and leader for District 6 and San Francisco.
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