MaryAnn Robins. Photo Credit: MaryAnn Robins

MaryAnn Robins, an indefatigable and dynamic advocate for the Indigenous community in Lancaster and the surrounding region, will receive an honorary doctorate of humane letters at Franklin & Marshall’s 239th Commencement. She is president of the Circle Legacy Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and empowering Indigenous peoples in Lancaster City.

As a stalwart community partner in the first year of the College’s Reckoning with Lancaster program, Robins exemplified the spirit of empathy, collaboration, integrity and service F&M cultivates in its students. She contributed to a summer curricular institute for faculty and the Summer Research Scholar program for students. She also partnered with F&M professors on the classes, “Indigenous Histories in Lancaster” in fall 2024 and “Indigenous Futures in Lancaster” in spring 2025, imparting purpose, meaning, and community connection to students’ learning.

Robins has worked tirelessly on educational programming and advocacy projects designed to elevate the voices of Indigenous peoples in the Lancaster area and create and strengthen relationships among Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. She is a resident liaison to the Plain community for WellSpan Health. She also is a Carlisle Indian School descendant and a former board member of the Carlisle Indian School Project.

Robins is Onondaga and grew up on Haudenosaunee tribal lands in upstate New York. She graduated from Boston College with a bachelor’s degree in biology and worked as an interpreter in the Wampanoag history program at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts.

As a stalwart community partner in the first year of the College’s Reckoning with Lancaster program, Robins exemplified the spirit of empathy, collaboration, integrity and service F&M cultivates in its students. Here, Robins poses with the Reckoning With Lancaster Year 1 team: faculty fellow, Eric Hirsch; community partner, Jess McPherson; and faculty fellow, Mary Ann Levine.

Robins is president of the Circle Legacy Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting and empowering Indigenous peoples in Lancaster City.

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