Elected to the Denver City Council in 2011, Robin Kniech has dedicated her life to supporting communities and making our city and region a better place for middle class families and those struggling to make ends meet.
Raised in the Midwest, Robin is the daughter of working-class parents and she learned the value of community and hard work early in life. Her dad was a construction worker and her mom and step-father still work at a Milwaukee factory making combination locks. She graduated Summa Cum Laude from Drake University and as a Public Interest Scholar from Northeastern University School of Law, working throughout her education and funding the rest with scholarships and loans. Robin is an inactive member of the Colorado Bar.
Robin began her career working with women struggling to escape domestic violence, but quickly evolved into making system-level change by supporting candidates with community values and advocating for improvements to public policy and laws. She has worked in the public and non-profit sectors, for a total of more than fifteen years of public policy experience at all levels of government. After volunteer activism on environmental sustainability in her youth, Robin more recently returned to these issues by promoting sustainability through transportation and land-use, and connections between energy efficiency and the creation of good jobs for residents who need them most.
Prior to her election, Robin served as the Program Director for FRESC: Good Jobs, Strong Communities, a local non-profit focused on Denver and the Metro Region. She has been a champion for transparency and community involvement in government decisions. Robin also served for more than two years as a Mayor Hickenlooper appointee on the Denver Union Station Project Authority, which is delivering the $477 million transit hub for FasTracks and paving the way for private investment at Denver's historic Union Station. Under her leadership, a broad coalition helped to ensure the project also delivered opportunities for small, locally owned retail businesses, environmental sustainability, living wage jobs for those cleaning and maintaining the site, and construction Apprenticeship training opportunities during the build-out.
Robin and her partner of more than 10 years have a two-year old son and live in the Berkeley Park Neighborhood. Robin is the first out member of the LGBT community to serve on the Denver City Council.