Shirley A. Robertson
“Southern” is her watchword as Shirley A. Robertson, a 1966 graduate of Andrew Lewis High School in Salem, Virginia, takes her special management talent in leasing and marketing of rental communities to international levels. Active in both high school sports and club work, she continued her education in North Carolina at Campbell College (B.S. in education) with post-graduate studies at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte and Marymount University.
Though Shirley is married to John Hawthorne and they live in Bowie, Maryland (they have no children), she works for Southern Management Corporation in Vienna, Virginia. In this job she magnifies what her company calls “The Southern Difference.” Her company profile declares: “one can only fully appreciate Southern Management Corporation’s (SMC) drive toward excellence in professional training and development if they have had the opportunity to know and work with the woman behind the program. Shirley’s enthusiasm and eagerness to share her knowledge makes learning a pleasure.” Her numerous professional credits coupled with her skills as a motivational speaker, educator, and trainer, distinguish Shirley as one of the industry’s foremost authorities on residential housing management and fair housing development.
Robertson has conducted and completed marketing reviews on apartment communities from coast to coast, including full-day educational session for 24 Russian housing professionals, a credit not only to herself and her company, but to the multi-housing industry. The book Excel in Leasing is only one publication which carries her name.
When asked about the driving force behind her, Shirley simply replies: “Sharing is caring. Once you receive the gift to share knowledge, you find it gives much in return.” And, as her profile states, she does so daily with the magnetic Southern style that is all her own.
Shirley belongs to several more organizations in her profession; she is the past president of Chapter 92 of RAM (Registered in Apartment Management) and is a RAM Life Governor of the National Association of Home Builder’s Multifamily Council. She serves as a RAM School Dean and advanced RAM instructor. For the past nine years Shirley has been a seminar leader for Multi-Housing World conferences.
In recognition of her outstanding career achievement, in 1996 Shirley A. Robertson was among the charter members inducted into the Salem Alumni Hall of Fame established by the Salem Educational Foundation and Alumni Association.
