Robin Shirley

Robin Shirley is the Founder and Director of The Compass Center and Compass Academy Homeschool Cooperative. A mother of two bright and spirited kiddos (ages 6 and 8), Robin brings more than two decades of lived experience in integrative health, education, community-building, and entrepreneurship to her work with families. Robin is a certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach with a background in Business Management from Virginia Tech, She is also a certified and practiced Reiki Master Practitioner, and holds an up-to-date CPR/First Aid certification.

Robin’s journey into natural wellness began at age 11, when she was diagnosed with Lyme disease and Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Her teenage years and early twenties became an immersion into nutrition, environmental medicine, holistic therapies, and natural healing. What began as a personal necessity evolved into a lifelong mission: empowering children and families with tools that support resilience, wellbeing, and true vitality. 

In 2011, Robin founded Take Back Your Health™, and over the next 13 years, she produced large-scale wellness conferences, retreats, online programs, and community gatherings that served thousands of people. Her work included integrating and elevating the teachings of well-respected integrative doctors and wellness professionals, designing, launching, and monetizing multiple successful online and in-person programs of up to 500+ attendees, and coaching women and families through natural health and lifestyle change.

Her professional work, paired with her own healing experience, has given her a deep understanding of childhood wellness, nutrition, sensory needs, environmental health, and preventative lifestyle practices—knowledge she integrates into Compass Academy’s daily rhythm.

As an educator and director, Robin is passionate about restoring what she calls “the essential connections” in childhood: connection to self, to others, to nature, to wellbeing, and to community.

Compass Academy was founded on this philosophy. Robin’s vision is to build a family environment where all who join the programs are supported emotionally, spiritually, physically, socially, and creatively—where education feels like belonging, exploration, purpose, and joy.

When she’s not developing programs or teaching, Robin can be found hiking in the Blue Ridge Mountains, drawing, tending her garden, or sharing slow, cozy moments at home with her son and daughter. She plans to spend the rest of her life serving families, stewarding nature-based education in her community, and continuing her lifelong study of healing and wellness.