Stephen Holmes Robertson

Director of Partnership

I was fortunate as a child to have a father in the US Military. He served in Washington D.C. where I was born, and in Germany, Texas, Bangkok, and New York City. Due to his assignments, I became very flexible and adaptive, which has helped me later in life. Where we lived has influenced my passion for travel and learning about international cultures.
Our family settled in Washington D.C. where I attended high school and participated in track and field. My physical education teachers and coaches were my role models. They always nurtured the limited athletic ability that I had. Due to their kind influence, I was always interested in becoming a coach.
I graduated from the University of Maryland with an undergraduate degree in Microbiology. My education continued at Georgetown University with courses in Marine Microbiology. After taking master’s degree courses for a while, I started work as a Junior Scientist at a cancer research company. The work was interesting, but after three years I longed for more human interaction.
I chose to become a teacher and took education courses at the American University. This was exciting to me because I now had a chance to become a coach.
My high school chemistry teaching and coaching lasted thirty years all at the same school in Germantown Maryland. In 2004 my chemistry students tested and found lead ions in the drinking fountain water. This analysis prompted an article about their experiments in the Washington Post newspaper. It was an excellent lesson for the students to learn; that grassroots action can result in community improvement. As a result of the student findings, the local government made the necessary repairs.
I was the only Head Indoor Track coach at Seneca Valley High School for 28 straight years! In 1995 due to excellent athletes and wonderful assistant coaches, we won the Maryland Outdoor Men’s Track and Field Championship.
From 1991 to 1999 I took part in an athletic exchange program supported by the Russian Ministry of Education. It was a magical opportunity to bring together Russian and American athletes for competition and cultural appreciation. I traveled to Russia with American teams six times and hosted Russian teams to the USA five times. It is my hope that the Russian student’s experiences with democratic values and individual freedoms remain in their thoughts. My last visit to Russia was in 2013 to watch the World Track and Field Championships. In 2014 the Russians invaded Ukraine.
From 2004 until 2009 I reviewed applications from Eastern European High School students to study in the USA. The program was sponsored by the United States Department of State.
After my retirement from high school teaching in 2004; I was able to teach chemistry labs and coach track and field at McDaniel College in Maryland for 15 years. I still teach but had to suspend my coaching for 2023-2024 to support my wife who is a polio survivor.
In June 2023, I was contacted by a Kenyan athlete for help in finding education and competition opportunities in U.S.A. Since then, I have been in contact with several Kenyan coaches and at least twenty runners. A bonus has been the continuing contact with multiple American coaches.
I look forward to and am honored to be able to help support the water and nutritional projects for the Mt. Eglon area. Environmental conservation has always been an interest for me. If an individual leader can be empowered to help start a project, an entire community can be inspired to help themselves. With community productivity being encouraged through the St. Elizabeth
Mission and Compassionate Centre, there should be an improvement in equitable distribution of resources.
My home is in Central Maryland with my wife and cat ‘Luba”. I enjoy watching the sport of track and field, cooking, travel, and gardening.