Robert Stephens, GSB Coalition Founder Robert Stephens Jr. was born in Shreveport, Louisiana and settled in Seattle's Central District with his family in 1959. He attended Horace Mann Elementary, Meany Junior High, and Garfield High School, obtaining his undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and Master's in Education from Western Washington University.

Robert has had a profound impact on the cultural life of the Central District, helping create programs and community facilities such as Black Arts West, Langston Hughes Theater, Medgar Evers Pool, Madrona Dance Studio (Spectrum Dance Studio), and Seattle Veterans Program(SEA/VETS), just to name a few. He volunteered on the Design & Review Stewardship Team that renovated Garfield High School and built the Quincy Jones Performance Center. He also established the Central Area Cultural Arts Commission to ensure that the stories and experiences of the African-American population and other ethnic communities would not be erased by gentrification and redevelopment. Today, Robert Jr. still lives in the Central Area home his parents purchased back in January 1959.