With a strong drive for helping others succeed, as well as an unrelenting work ethic, it should come as no surprise that Northeast PA Manufacturers & Employers Association and Council President Darlene Robbins has become one of the area’s top business professionals. She was recently honored in The Northeast Pennsylvania Business Journal’s Top 25 Women in Business edition.
Robbins says that her enthusiasm for serving the members’ needs became the cornerstone of her success. She served as executive director of the Manufacturers & Employers Association of Schuylkill County in 1985. Through hard work, determination and an ear that’s always open to members’ needs, the association flourished to become a regional Manufacturers & Employers Association with member companies from over 20 counties.
“Our workforce development programs were so successful that the growth yielded an incorporation of our 501(C)(3) charitable organization (now known as the Northeast PA Manufacturers & Employers Council). The YES Northeast Certificate Program, offered by the Council, was recently identified in the Governor’s Manufacturing Advisory Council recommendations as a best practice model,” she said.
Her first and foremost mentor is God. Her parents taught her the values of patience, persistence, respect, honest, integrity and accountability.
“My own children enable me to understand these values and their importance in my personal, as well as professional, life,” she said.
She would like to continue to be a mentor to young professionals and women in the workplace and, most importantly, a good role model for her children and grandchildren.
Congratulations Darlene!
