About

Roslyn M. Brock
Chairman,NAACP National Board of Directors

Roslyn M. Brock is Chairman of the National Board of Directors for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).  She made history in February 2010 when she was unanimously elected as its 14th Chairman.  She is the youngest person and fourth woman to hold this position.

Brock is currently employed as Vice President, Advocacy and Government Relations for Bon Secours Health System, Inc., in Marriottsville, Maryland.  Prior to working at Bon Secours, Brock worked 10 years in health programs at the W. K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, Michigan.

She graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Union University; earned a master’s degree in health services administration from George Washington University, an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Master of Divinity degree from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. In May 2010, she received an honorary doctorate degree from Virginia Union University.

Brock has been a servant leader with the NAACP for more than 27 years.  She is a Diamond Life Member of NAACP and joined the Association as a freshman at Virginia Union University where she was elected President of the Youth and College Division from the Commonwealth of Virginia.  One year later, she was elected as a Youth Board Member from Region 7 representing the District of Columbia, Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia.  In 1988 as Vice Chairman of the NAACP Board Health Committee, her advocacy for quality, accessible and affordable health care for vulnerable communities resulted in the National Board’s mandate of a health committee for all units in its Constitution.  In 2012, she initiated and led the Board’s historic policy decision to support marriage equality and to implement The Black Church and HIV: The Social Justice Imperative.

An expert grant writer, Brock has secured millions of philanthropic support for the NAACP.  From 1999-2010, Brock chaired the NAACP’s National Convention Planning Committee. In this role, she led the Committee to institute fiscal policies that resulted in the Annual Convention becoming a profit center for the Association with average yearly net revenues of one million dollars.  For nine years (2001-2010) she served as Vice Chairman of the NAACP National Board. In 2005, Brock created the NAACP Leadership 500 Summit.  The Summit’s goal is to recruit, train and retain a new generation of civil rights leaders to the NAACP.  Since its inception, Leadership 500 has contributed more than $1.5m to the NAACP to support its civil rights programs.

Brock is a member of the Board of Trustees of The George Washington University, Kellogg Global Advisory Board, American Public Health Association, American College of Health Services Executives, Association of Healthcare Philanthropy, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, The LINKS and a former Trustee of the Catholic Health Association of the United States of America.

Brock’s leadership skills have been recognized by several national publications and organizations.  In 2012, she was the convocation speaker at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and featured as the February 6, 2012 NBC Universal iVillage Woman of the Week. Brock was awarded the 2011 Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award by The George Washington University;  the September 2010 issue of Essence magazine listed her among the “40 Fierce and Fabulous Women Who Are Changing the World,” Black Entertainment Television’s (BET) 2010 “Black Girls Rock,” honored her in its inaugural broadcast and she received the 2010 National Urban League’s Women of Power Award.

Brock participated in the 2008 U. S. Department of Defense’s 75th Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC) reserved for American leaders interested in expanding their knowledge of the military and national defense.  She was a guest lecturer on “Alleviating Global Poverty” in Rome, Italy at the 2007 Martin Luther King, Jr. Conflict Resolution Conference.  From 2003-2005, Brock was a Young Leaders Fellow with the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations to build cross-cultural understanding and professional networks with young Chinese leaders.

Brock’s goal in life is embodied in an African proverb, “Care more than others think is wise, Risk more than others think is safe, Dream more than others think is practical, and Expect more than others think is possible.”