Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine

Department: Pediatrics

As a professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Robin Foster, M.D., combines leadership and warmth with a deep sense of integrity. Described by others as a “uniquely gifted physician, educator, advocate, and clinical researcher” as well as a “caring and thoughtful human being,” Dr. Foster is deeply committed to her call to serve the most vulnerable populations in our communities. A colleague noted, “To work with Dr. Foster in the ER, in the clinic, in the court room, with the foster care system, or with victims of sex trafficking and to observe her compassionately care for these children and tirelessly fight for their health and healing is to witness an individual who is clearly driven by a deep care and concern for those she feels called to serve.”

Dr. Foster completed her pediatric residency at the Medical College of Virginia in 1992 and her fellowship training at St. Christopher’s Hospital in Philadelphia in 1996, after which she returned to VCU as faculty, where she remains. She helped found the Child Protective Team at Children’s Hospital in Richmond, and she continues to serve as one of the three original medical directors. In 1997 Dr. Foster established the Reach Out and Read early literacy program at VCU, expanding the program into 100 pediatric practices in the Commonwealth within three years. She served as chair of the Virginia Emergency Medical Services for Children Committee, as the child abuse and neglect chair for the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for eleven years, and then as the AAP legislative chair for eight years. She currently serves on hospital, local, and state committees, such as the Richmond City Child Advocacy Center Multidisciplinary Team and the Virginia Child State Fatality Review Team.

Dr. Foster has been involved with multiple non-profit organizations, including Virginia Poverty Law Center, The New Community School, the YWCA and the Partnership for Families Northside Robins Foundation. She served as President of the Board for Prevent Child Abuse Virginia and Richmond Midnight Basketball League and Vice President for Richmond CASA. She currently belongs to a number of societies, including being a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and of the American Academy of Pediatrics. In addition to her extensive didactic and clinical teaching experience, Dr. Foster has formally mentored and advised more than 100 students, provided extensive professional, community, and University services, and has been a Project Heart Mentor since 2017. She has been invited to present over 450 times at the local, national, and international levels and has more than 25 publications in peer-reviewed journals and books. Based on residents’ votes, Dr. Foster was asked to be the pediatric resident graduation speaker in 2015 and 2018; in 2017 she was inducted by medical students into the Brown Sequard Chapter of AOA for the VCU School of Medicine; she won a Golden Apple Award for teaching from emergency medicine residents in 2018; in 2019 she received the MCVP Distinguished Clinician of the Year award and was the guest speaker at the Class of 2024 White Coat Ceremony; she was recognized as a Richmond Top Doctor in Emergency Medicine for more than 10 years; and she was named the Top Doctor in Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Child Abuse in 2022.

Dr. Foster clearly exemplifies the qualities that are paramount to the recipients of this award: integrity; excellence; compassion; altruism; respect; empathy; and service. As Fay Chelmow, President of ImPACT Virginia, shares, “What makes Robin such an effective advocate is her ability to deliver clinical excellence with bottomless courage, empathy and compassion. She is a physician champion every child deserves.”  

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