Remembering Robin Cogan: It Started With One Article

Leslie H. Nicoll, PhD, MBA, RN, FAAN

Writer’s Camp Director

Writer’s Camp lost one of its original counselors this week with the death of Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FAAN.

Many people will remember Robin as a nationally recognized advocate, speaker, author, and public voice for school health, gun violence prevention, and public health. They will remember her media appearances, her editorials, her blog, her presentations, and her tireless advocacy on behalf of children and families.

The world came to know Robin as an advocate. I knew her as a writer.

I first met Robin at a writing retreat in New Jersey in September 2016. At the time, she was an experienced school nurse with a very specific goal.

“I want to write an article for NASN School Nurse,” she told me. “My goal is to have a published article before I retire.” She noted that retirement was several years away, so she had time to get this done!

I smiled. It was a modest goal. Not a book. Not a national platform. Not television interviews or speaking engagements. Just one published article. I told her I could help her.

Robin left that retreat with two manuscripts in progress.

The first, Redesigning School Nursing Education in New Jersey to Address the Challenges and Opportunities of Population Health, was accepted for publication in NASN School Nurse later that year. On December 4, 2016, she sent me an email that I still have:

“I wanted you to be the first to know that the manuscript has been officially accepted! Thank you for your help.”

The second manuscript was titled Community Cafés Harness the Power of Family Engagement to Improve Healthcare Outcomes for Students in New Jersey. It described a project that brought parents together to discuss their healthcare experiences, identify barriers to care, and work collaboratively toward solutions.

The manuscript never reached publication, despite Robin’s persistent efforts to shepherd it through the editorial process. Ironically, it may have been the more important of the two.

The Community Café project contained the themes that would define Robin’s life’s work: listening to families, building community, creating dialogue, and helping people find their voice. The manuscript stalled, but the work flourished. The project grew beyond the page and became one of the foundations of the advocacy and leadership for which Robin later became nationally known.

One sentence from that manuscript seems especially fitting today:

“Dialogue is a catalyst for change.”

Robin believed that and practiced it every day.

In the years that followed, Robin’s voice reached far beyond the school nurse’s office. She became a nationally recognized advocate, writer, educator, and speaker. Following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, she helped the nation understand the impact of gun violence and generational trauma through the lens of her own family’s experience. Her father survived the 1949 Howard Unruh mass shooting in New Jersey by hiding in a closet; decades later, her niece survived the Parkland shooting the same way—in a closet. Robin transformed that painful history into education, advocacy, and action.

Yet despite her growing national profile, Robin never stopped encouraging others to write.

She presented at the INANE Virtual Conference in 2021, became one of our original counselors here at Writer’s Camp, and remained an enthusiastic supporter of emerging writers. One year ago this month, she devoted a post on The Relentless School Nurse, her award-winning blog, encouraging readers to join Writer’s Camp and attend our first Camporee.

“Writer’s Camp is just getting started—and your voice is needed,” she wrote.

Those words captured what Robin believed throughout her life.

Every voice mattered.

Every story mattered.

Every conversation mattered.

Robin achieved her goal of publishing an article in NASN School Nurse.

Then she discovered what many writers discover: one article has a way of leading to another.

Over the next decade, she became a prolific writer, blogger, educator, advocate, and mentor. More importantly, she used her voice to help others find theirs.

That is the Robin I will remember.

On behalf of everyone at Writer’s Camp, we extend our deepest condolences to Robin’s family, friends, colleagues, students, and the many communities she served.

Thank you, Robin, for your voice, your friendship, your advocacy, and your example.

The campfire will burn a little dimmer without you. 🔥