State Representative Carol Glanville serves the 84th House District, her message is “fighting for West Michigan values and delivering common sense solutions for families.” Glanville has extensive professional experience as a classroom teacher, administrator, education consultant and a local elected official who has served on many community boards.
She advocates for hard-working families on the issues that matter most — including help with rising costs, investing in education and professional opportunities at all levels. Glanville was born and raised in West Michigan, and she went on to live and raise her family in the Walker community.
Full Transcript:
Shelley Irwin: Welcome to Powerful Women, Let's Talk. I'm Shelley Irwin. Today my guest is State Representative Carol Glanville, serving the 84th House District, including Walker, Grandville, the West Side, and parts of Northeast Grand Rapids. Her message; fighting for West Michigan values and delivering common sense solutions for families. We will talk about that. She's been a teacher, administrator, education consultant, local elected official, of course, served on many community boards. Yes, we dig into that as well. She does advocate for hard-working families on the issues that matter most. Born and raised in West Michigan, then went on to live and raise her family in the Walker community. So, yeah, she knows us like the back of her hand. Hello to you. State Rep Carol Glanville. What do you call, what do I call you? State Rep, Honorary Glanville? What's the verbiage these days?
Carol Glanville: Oh, gosh. You know, my husband always laughs when I get mail at the house that says, honorable, the honorable Carol Glanville. But to keep it real, most people just call me Rep.
SI: Yes. All right, Rep. Congratulations on your success. I'm going to get right into this maybe early memory of a political role model. Maybe you sensing you could get involved in service.
CG: Gosh, you know, I think for every woman, probably their first leadership role model is their mom. And my mom was never involved in politics, but she did demonstrate leadership for me at a very young age. She led my Girl Scout troop. And, you know, I'm sure I wasn't thinking leadership at the time. But, you know, for her to be out there in front and demonstrate, you know, a woman taking over a group, leading and, you know, leading in that way and that sort of thing, I'm sure that had some impact on me that rings through to today.
SI: Yes. Hey, Girl Scouts are based in Walker. There you go. Why are you advocating for hardworking families on the issues that matter most?
CG: You know, because, families are everybody. You know, however you live, you're part of a family. And I believe everybody works hard. And so I feel like that really just represents who I represent and the importance of making sure that everybody has the opportunity to be self-sufficient, to live a life of dignity, and to be able to have a future here in Michigan.
SI: Yeah, we'll get back to that. I want you to take us back to your developmental years. What was your trajectory to leadership?
CG: Well, I believe my trajectory to leadership really started with teaching. And early in my career, I took the opportunity to move to South Korea. And I lived there for a couple of years and I was teaching English overseas. And the group of people that I worked with were all native language speakers of their own French, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese, German, English, et cetera. And, but I was the only one with a teaching degree. And so just after I had taught for a year here locally in Michigan, and then I went overseas. And so it was a real opportunity to lead others and help them understand how to be an educator.
SI: Was that a risk going from our small area in in Walker to South Korea? I trust perhaps on your own.
CG: Yeah, yeah, it was a bit of a risk, right? I mean, but I've always and I still do this. My mantra is what's the worst that can happen? And if I can handle the answer to that question, then why not? It's the reason I don't skydive. Because I'm not willing to accept the worst case scenario in that particular endeavor, but most of the time I find it's just, the worst case scenario is I just don't like it, or it's something along those lines and then you just move on.
SI: Did you further your classroom experience than when you go back to the States?
CG: Yeah. Yeah, so I was teaching in South Korea, and then I returned to the States, lived in Chicago. I worked at the city colleges of Chicago, teaching adult ESL. And then I also taught high school Spanish in the Catholic schools, actually, in Chicago. Primarily, I also did a little stint on the South Side in one of the public high schools there in Chicago.
SI: When did you know it was time to seek political office?
CG: I decided to seek political office as most women do when I was asked. But I came about it, I had been very active in my community in Walker, people knew who I was through that work. And there was an open seat in our city commission and so some folks said, Hey, are you going to put in for that? And I said, Well, why do you think I should? What is it that you know, I bring to you as a leader? And then I realized the skill set that I had from years in education, working as administrators, very similar to the work I would be doing on the city commission. So I thought this is a way for me to transfer my skill set and continue doing good work for my community.
SI: Do you recommend if one is asked to say yes?
CG: Yeah, for sure. I mean, again, because if it's just not your cup of tea or doesn't work out, that's okay. But if you don't try, you just won't ever know. I like that worst case scenario.
SI: Again, mantra. Back to hardworking families that you advocate for on the matters most. Take me to today. What are these matters that you're working with?
CG: There are a lot of matters that we're working with. But I think when we have these conversations, a lot of people go right to the financial piece. They'll say, we're trying to cut costs, we're trying to get good jobs without really any definition of what is a good job. And so... what I try to look at is really how we provide services for people, like a little bit more broadly from the financial aspect to the actual service, because even if something is free, if it is not accessible to you, it doesn't matter. So when we think about things like transportation, housing, where are homes located, access to child care, and things like that, healthcare even, are we providing the service in a way that people can actually take advantage of it or not.
SI: Do these topics keep you up at night?
CG: No, not particularly. I mean, they're kind of, you know, they, these are topics that are time tested, I think. And so I just enjoy doing the work and it doesn't necessarily keep me stressed in that way. There might be a particular issue from time to time that becomes very poignant, but day to day, not so much.
SI: Sounds like more of a motivation.
CG: Exactly, yeah, there's work to be done.
SI: The topic of behavioral health, how did this come up in your life?
CG: Again, going back to being a teacher, I think it's just something that's always been a part of my career and my professional life. You can't teach people, you can't interact with parents, students, administrators, the community in general. When you're a teacher, the emotions that people bring to the classroom and bring to the school impact the way that you interact with them and how you can successfully teach, get your message across, communicate and partner. And so I think it's just one of those things that's been embedded in the work that I do and just carrying that forward, understanding that mental health is as important as physical health, if not more so.
CG: What's your t-shirt say? My t-shirt says, we are the women we've been waiting for.
SI: How are we doing with getting women in the business of politics and exploring the political career role?
SI: I think we've done a really great job in Michigan. Currently our fours, our highest state offices are all held by women. The caucus that I am a part of is majority women. We have a female speaker, or excuse me, majority floor leader in the Senate. And so, we see a number of women on our Supreme Court. And there's so many exciting women leading here in Grand Rapids. Yourself among them.
SI: Well, we're in the sandbox. It's exciting to be able to seek a goal and attempt to achieve it. What would you like to see as a 13-year-old rep, Carol Glenville? Would you have made any changes?
CG: I don't think I would have made any changes. I am a firm believer in the path and how it connects to where you are today. And I think if anything, one thing had been different, I wouldn't be sitting across from you today. And so good, bad, it all flows together. And if I don't have the bad, I don't appreciate the good as much. So that balance of struggle and success gets us through. And like I said, I wouldn't be here without it. So I'm excited to have had all these experiences.
SI: And more to come. What do you like to see in your leaders?
CG: I really like to see a leader who is authentically open to others. I think that is the most critical element is the desire to make an effort to understand. We don't have to agree, but we need to be able to empathize. We need to know where other people are coming from so that we can find solutions together, so that we can sit at the same table together and we can get past some of this tribalism of me versus you and work together to find the best solutions for the people in Michigan.
SI: And on that note, what do you need from your community to make your job bigger, better, and important?
CG: Just be engaged. We hear a lot about civic engagement. I know there are a lot of people who ask, what can I do? I'm not saying you have to go sit at every city commission meeting and planning commission. But just be involved in your community. Volunteer somewhere. Attend a high school soccer game, whatever it is, be a part of your community in an active way. And then you meet your neighbors, you can spread the message of different things that are going on. You can begin to understand how a decision here impacts a program there and how things are interconnected and begin to understand how you can advocate for the things that are most important.
SI: Well, we know it's not skydiving, but do you have a secret hobby?
CG: Yeah, I do. I have a, my hobby is really just being creative. My lifelong passion really is around indoor plants. I've always had a little garden. Yes, very much so. And so I really enjoy that. But aside from that, I like just being creative where there aren't any rules and I'm not particularly talented. But I dabble in a little bit of drawing, a little bit of painting. I just recently, for the first time, did a little wheel throwing pottery workshop thing.
SI: You did the clay work?
CG: Yeah, yeah. And I loved it. Just loved it. You know, so there really aren't rules and there's not really a level or measure of success and you can just do it for a period of time.
SI: Yeah. Make sure you initial that. What does the Glanville family do for fun?
CG: What do we do for fun? We have Netflix? No. Well, you're normal. No, we really enjoy being outside. So avid outdoors people, hiking, biking. My husband is a lifelong fisherman, hunter. My boys, they, everybody's skis or snowboards and that sort of thing. So we're just we're very outdoor people.
SI: Have any favorite quotes or anything to send us home with? Besides what's on your t-shirt?
CG: Yeah you know I'm gonna stick with what's on my t-shirt. I think you know this this is such an inspiring message for me because it comes from our immigrant community here in Grand Rapids. And there it's about women who have moved here from other countries but are continuing to their own craft and their skills here in the United States and coming together to continue in a new way. Most of them are refugees have been some very hard times so it's very inspirational for me.
SI: Good. State Representative Carol Glennville serving the 84th House District. Thank you for your service in this conversation.
CG: Oh thank you.
