About Ms. Golden

Robin Golden, Strategic Consultant

Robin’s work and volunteer efforts have been focused on community and economic development (writ large) for more than 30 years. Her work has focused on areas such as education, affordable housing, community development, financial institutions, food policy, and workforce development.

In 2020, because of the inequities laid bare by the pandemic and the murder of George Floyd and other Black and Brown victims of racism, she started to focus on promoting racial equity and inclusion in the organizations where she served on the board. As an outgrowth of this commitment, she helped launch the Manufacturing and Technology Community Hub (MATCH), a not-for-profit manufacturing and training facility that provides pathways to economic security for unemployed and under-employed people in underserved communities.  She currently devotes significant time to this endeavor as Secretary of the Board and as a member of the implementation team.

Prior to the pandemic, Robin consulted to New Haven Legal Assistance in the creation of a new community and economic development unit to represent formal and informal neighborhood organizations. She has worked on a state level in Connecticut and Rhode Island, focusing on the intersection of K-12, college and the workforce, specifically on collaborative initiatives to ensure college and career readiness for all high school students.

Robin was a founding member of the Teach For America – Connecticut regional advisory board where she served as Chair and as a board member until 2020.  Robin is currently Secretary of the board of Capital For Change (C4C is a statewide, Connecticut Community Development Financial Institution) and the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Finance Company (CEEFCo), a subsidiary of C4C that advances environmental sustainability by offering affordable financing products for clean energy and energy efficiency improvements with a priority to low- and moderate-income communities. She is also Secretary of the board of Connecticut First City Fund Corporation and Home Preservation, Inc. She left the board of the south central Connecticut Workforce Development Board (Workforce Alliance) in 2023 after more than 20 years as a board member, the last seven as Board Chair.

From 2007 through 2012, Robin directed the Community and Economic Development Clinic at the Yale Law School where she supervised law and management students (as well as graduate students from other professional schools) in projects ranging from real estate development to school reform.

From 2003 to 2007, Robin was the Chief Operating Officer of the New Haven Board of Education, where she oversaw all operational departments of a public school district serving 21,000 students. A graduate of both Yale Law School (J.D., 1998) and Yale College (B.A., 1979), Robin clerked for Justice Richard Palmer of the Connecticut State Supreme Court following graduation from law school. While in law school, she worked on the plans for the first Achievement First charter school, Amistad Academy. After her clerkship, Robin was Deputy Director of the New Haven Housing Authority. Before entering law school, she had a career in non-profit fundraising and management, culminating in a successful capital campaign to build and endow the Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale.