81.4 F
Cruz Bay
Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeNewsArchivesJewels of the Virgin Isles: Carmen Robles-Inman

Jewels of the Virgin Isles: Carmen Robles-Inman

Jewels of the Virgin Isles is a feature series profiling Virgin Islanders in the diaspora who are excelling in their respective fields and/or positively representing the USVI abroad.

She is as diverse in her heritage as she is in her educational and professional experiences and the places she has called home. She is Afro-Latina and Caribbean but has lived on the U.S. mainland for more than 30 years. Her name is Carmen Robles-Inman, and she is proud to be a product of the Caribbean and the Virgin Islands. This blend of cultures would prove to be the compass that would shape her career path and her work in the nonprofit sector.

Robles-Inman was born in St. Thomas, but spent the first nine years of her life in Puerto Rico, with a year in New York in between. She, her sister, Alicia, and mother, Bernice Robles, returned to St. Thomas where she continued her education at Lincoln School, the now closed J. Antonio Jarvis Elementary School, and completed her primary education at All Saints Cathedral School, graduating in 1977.

Being of Virgin Islands and Puerto Rican descent, Robles-Inman developed an affinity for languages and linguistics that would prove to be an asset in her career years later. After working in the territory for a few years in the tourism sector, Robles-Inman headed for Washington, D.C., to pursue her college studies at Georgetown, Trinity and American Universities, earning a bachelor’s degree in business administration and a master’s degree in organizational development.

Robles-Inman employs her organization development skills and expertise at the D.C.-based Edgewood/Brookland Family Services Collaborative, where Robles-Inman lends her expertise and combines her passion for bringing out the best in people to help families in need of a variety of services and to help structure the growth of the organization.

“While I have had many jobs, at heart I am a social scientist,” she says. “In every job I am searching to understand how we humans think, function and live our lives.”

“I try to understand what my staff or our clients want to accomplish and seek ways to facilitate these dreams and to make their respective contribution to their world,” Robles-Inman says, adding that her attitude of service and perseverance, as well as her greatest inspiration, stems from observations as a young girl of her mother always giving of herself as a dedicated volunteer and a FEMA reservist for almost 20 years.

“She taught me everything I know that has made me really successful,” Robles-Inman reflects with pride. Her mother instilled a profound respect for education and hard work, the value of being friendly, courteous and helpful. Additionally, the sense of community and family she experienced growing up in the territory helped her to develop a sense of belonging and confidence because people knew her family history – her story, she says.

“I find that Virgin Islanders’ strong sense of self and character are traits that have helped me – especially when things go upside down – which they will,” she continues.

“Success in your career doesn’t have to be haphazard. I carefully crafted my career path to include work experiences within the four major economic sectors: public, private, community-based/nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, and at all levels from the front line to the executive level,” she shares.

Robles-Inman’s bilingual background became the cornerstone of her work as a health and social service advocate for the Latino population in the nation’s capital; but it would also be a source of confusion for many who made assumptions about what a Latino/Latina should look like, she says. With a noticeable Spanish accent and last name, Robles-Inman recalls many interesting encounters with people when she moved to the states.

“When you’re at home [in the Virgin Islands], it’s not a big deal that you’re black and speak Spanish, because it’s all over the place; but when I came to the states, it threw people for a loop and there was a lot of bias. I was always challenged to pick a side, either Black or Latino,” she explains.

Ironically, after all these years on the U.S. mainland, she still encounters some of the same biases in her work, but admits that the atmosphere has greatly improved. Motivated by the responses her mixed heritage would draw from others, Robles-Inman began to spend her vacations investigating countries and communities with large populations of Afro-Latinos to study what life was really like in these settings, leading her to visit 13 countries in Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

Robles-Inman says she feels grateful for her Caribbean upbringing and expresses sadness about the increase in crime in the islands and the shift from the way life was during her youth. She is compelled to do her part to make the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean region a better place and expresses her desire to use her background in public health to host a major event that would address the environmental threats affecting the Virgin Islands and the Caribbean as a whole.

“If given the opportunity, I would like to be a catalyst for increasing the awareness of and action to mitigate these threats by engaging Virgin Islanders and others of Caribbean Heritage.” What better way to express her varied interests than to bring them all together for the greater good of her community.

A Nugget for V.I. Youth: “Get to know yourself – what you like, what you don’t . Be honest about what skills you have, what skills you may need, and put the effort and energy towards addressing them. Treat yourself respectfully; don’t do anything that would embarrass your mom/dad. It’s a fairly good measure that it won’t embarrass you later in your life.”

Little Known Fact(s): Carmen loves to cook. Her repertoire includes Thai, Indian and Italian cuisine. She also in an avid reader of fantasy novels because it helps her to clear her mind, de-stress, and be creative. She is developing her own novel in this genre.
__
Loán Sewer is a marketing and tourism consultant and proud Virgin Islander who resides in Washington, D.C. She is also a founding member of the USVI Alliance Inc., an organization focused on reconnecting the Virgin Islands diaspora with the local community and host of the USVI Economic Development Summit on the U.S. mainland. Follow her on Twitter @LoTalksTourism or e-mail her at info@Lotalkstourism.com.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Keeping our community informed is our top priority.
If you have a news tip to share, please call or text us at 340-228-8784.

Support local + independent journalism in the U.S. Virgin Islands

Unlike many news organizations, we haven't put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as accessible as we can. Our independent journalism costs time, money and hard work to keep you informed, but we do it because we believe that it matters. We know that informed communities are empowered ones. If you appreciate our reporting and want to help make our future more secure, please consider donating.