Ten years ago, Nodia Robinson was deployed to Afghanistan. A convoy commander and transportation officer, she managed gun trucks and ran rotary and fixed wing fuel and water supplies. The captain, linked to U.S. Special Forces, never lost sight of her plan: becoming a cardiologist. 

A native of Charleston, S.C., Robinson was motivated to make a difference by her grandmother who had poor health access and health literacy even though great hospitals were nearby. “Affording insulin, accurately measuring it in vials, improving her diet, and getting to and paying for medical appointments were major hurdles before she died at age 83,” she says. “Those final years were so hard, but her heart disease led me to my focus.” 

Robinson attended Furman University as an undergraduate and East Tennessee State for her master’s, but says she never had an advisor that guided her about what it takes to be a doctor. All that changed when she met Robin Maxwell in a biology class during a one-year post-baccalaureate program at UNCG to prepare for medical school. 

“I was an older student, and Robin Maxwell knew exactly what my plans were and what I could do,” Robinson explained. “And she understood the ‘why.’ She reassured me that I was qualified and could do it. These were magic words.” 

She felt out of the loop when she saw others accessing opportunities like conferences and extra training, but with Maxwell’s mentorship she found opportunities, including a free-of-charge Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) course
at nearby NC A&T. She finally felt seen and valued as a scholar at UNCG.  

After completing the biology program in 2017, she returned to her hometown of Charleston for medical school at the Medical University of South Carolina on a military scholarship. Today, she is a second-year internal medicine resident at Walter Reed Hospital, near Washington, D.C. By the time she completes her residency, the captain will likely be a major. 

“Sports cardiology will be my focus,” she explains. “Not just for athletes, but for people in positions like emergency medical technicians, and of course anyone in the military.”  

Once her military service is over, Robinson hopes to make a real impact serving rural areas in the South through mobile health, specifically identifying and helping patients with heart issues like her grandmother. She speaks about it with a confidence that her journey has built: “I know I can help them.”