National Vice President for Women and Fair Practices Kendrick Roberson
Dr. Kendrick B. Roberson is a National Vice President of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). He oversees AFGE’s Women’s Department and AFGE’s Fair Practices Department (WFP). WFP works to protect and advance civil, human, women’s, and workers’ rights of federal and D.C. government workers. He was elected to the position in August 2024 at AFGE’s 43rd National Convention in Las Vegas.
AFGE’s Women’s and Fair Practices Departments (WFP) work to promote and advance civil, human, women’s, and workers’ rights for federal and D.C. government employees.
In 2010, at the age of 19, Roberson began working for the Space and Missile Systems Center, headquartered at Los Angeles Air Force Base. After years of hard work, he became the lead cost analyst for three satellite and space programs with costs totaling over $1 billion.
Roberson has been a fierce advocate for worker, civil, and human rights over a decade of AFGE activism, with a special focus on building powerful teams and representing workers. Through his various positions and activism, Roberson has worked to eradicate workplace bullying, mistreatment, racism, and sexism.
In 2020, he was elected to serve as chair of the AFGE National Y.O.U.N.G. Committee, representing the more than 100,000 federal employees across the nation under the age of 40, and served for two terms before being elected NVP. During his tenure, AFGE Y.O.U.N.G. successfully changed AFGE’s constitution to protect against bullying and harassment, placed paid parental leave on AFGE’s national legislative agenda, organized tens of thousands of new members under age 40, and created and delivered nationwide Robert’s Rules of Order trainings to empower members to have their voices heard during union meetings.
In 2021, Roberson spearheaded the campaign to create AFGE’s first-ever Black constituency group, AFGE B.L.A.C.K. He chaired the group for two terms, facilitating trainings on discrimination in the workplace and partnering with the University of California, Los Angeles, to perform research on racial pay inequity.
Roberson also served as vice president of AFGE Local 2429, which represents U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force workers, and was elected as Fair Practices and Affirmative Action Coordinator (FPAAC) for AFGE District 12, where he represented federal workers in discrimination cases throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, and Hawaii. In this role, he was elected chair of the AFGE Human Rights Subcommittee on EEO Representation and Litigation.
Roberson also has been active in his community. In 2019, he was elected chair of the city of Carson’s only rent-control board, ensuring that residents are not treated unfairly or taken advantage of through predatory actions. He sits on the Board of Directors for the Los Angeles Black Worker Center and has taught classes on labor, political science, and statistics at UCLA and Pepperdine University.
Early in his career, Roberson attained an associate’s degree in economics from El Camino Community College. While attending El Camino, he won a nationwide competition hosted by NASA before beginning his work at the Space and Missile Systems Center. In 2013, Roberson achieved his bachelor’s degree in economics from Pepperdine University and was accepted into Pepperdine’s Business School, where he received a master’s degree in finance. He received additional master’s degrees in economics and political science from the University of Southern California in 2021, and the following year completed his Ph.D. in political science and international relations, with an emphasis on labor and wealth inequality.
Roberson continues to fight for equity in all spaces. He is consistently willing to show up for workers, his community, and his nation. “Solidarity is the ultimate weapon in the fight for equity, justice, and freedom,” he said.
