Anne Robinson grew up in a small town in South Texas. Her father, a World War II Veteran who participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy, had a significant influence on her decision to serve in the U.S. Army. He would share stories about his time in the Army, which piqued Robinson’s curiosity and fueled her desire to serve.
Robinson joined the Army in April 1988. Eleven years later, while deploying on a training exercise to Fairbanks, Alaska, she sustained a spinal cord injury as a result of a military vehicle accident. At the time, she and her husband, Harry, had been married for 12 years, and had two children, Justin and Rebecca, who were then 8 and 6 years old.
After being stabilized in Anchorage, Robinson was medevacked to San Antonio, Texas where she began rehabilitation at the Audie L Murphy VA Spinal Cord Injury Center. Three days after arriving on the spinal cord unit, Robinson was introduced to PVA through a National Service Officer (NSO) and a peer mentor.
The NSO helped to quickly get Robinson’s benefits started from the VA and handled her retirement from the Army six months after her injury, which helped pull Robinson out of a difficult time, both financially and emotionally. Her peer partner, Charlie, started the conversation about how to live an adapted life successfully and fully, and he introduced Robinson to the rest of the PVA family in San Antonio.
That wonderful group of people surrounded Robinson and her family, lifting them up, teaching them, and caring like no other community she had known. Robinson believes that without PVA, her family would have not been nearly as successful overcoming the challenges of her injury and learning how to live life to its fullest.
Robinson joined the PVA Texas Chapter in 2000 and became an advocacy director just 10 months after her injury. Since then, she has served that chapter in many different capacities, including as satellite director, advocacy director, vice president, chapter president and national director.
Robinson was reelected for a fourth term as a PVA National Vice President in May 2026 during the 80th Annual Convention, the new one-year term begins on July 1, 2026.
Robinson also Chairs the Anita Bloom Women Veterans Committee (ABWVC), which she, along with PVA Senior Vice President Tammy Jones and then-PVA National President David Zurfluh, established as a standing committee in 2016.
The ABWVC represents the women veterans of PVA and is now in its 10th year. The committee, along with PVA's Women's Initiative, has created many new opportunities to expand their leadership skills throughout the organization and increase the women member participation rate exponentially. PVA provided the platform for them to use their voices, and they have definitely been heard throughout the VA and beyond.
Robinson also has a passion for peer mentoring and believes it's one of the most important things that PVA members can participate in. Ensuring that newly injured veterans have someone to talk to, someone who's gone through the same experiences, and looks similar to them is sometimes lifesaving. With the establishment of the PVA Peer Mentoring Program (located in the chapter admin manual), Robinson wanted to ensure that PVA was never again locked out of the SCI units again (during COVID) and that every new injury/member who needs a mentor will have one.
When she is not doing work for PVA, you can find Robinson at home in Helotes, Texas, hanging out with her grandchildren, Shelby and Cooper, or enjoying boccia or bowling. She has learned to seize the moments, to capture the experience and to make things as enjoyable as possible. Tomorrow is not guaranteed, she says, so you must make your mark while you can.
