Robin was raised in a family where her mother was a Christian Scientist and her father an indifferent Methodist. By the age of 14, both of her parents had died. This forced her to a deeper prayer life and Scripture study. After high school she attended a Christian Science college, in Illinois. By about the age of 30, her study of sociology combined with reading the Catholic mystics deconstructed her Christian Science worldview. She still believed in God but was left high and dry. Continuing to read Scripture, the mystics, she entered a Methodist seminary and was baptized there. After seminary she entered Ph.D. studies at the Catholic University of America. This experience made her Catholic. Robin became a Catholic in 1987, and has never looked back. She is a former dean of the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family. She is a professor of spirituality.