The Association of Illinois Rural and Small Schools is excited to welcome John Glasgow to our work as a Program Director focused on reviewing Career and Technical Education.
John was born and raised in rural Warren and Henderson Counties. He saw the profound changes and challenges that rural Illinois communities faced, and recognized the potential for people to collectively seek meaningful action on complex issues.
Inspired by the power of collaboration at all levels, John pursued his B.A. in political science and Chinese at Macalester College. Casting his net wide, he studied the philosophy, politics, and economics of local and grassroots communities globally. He carried this quest for comparative investigation into his M.A. program at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Chinese and American Studies in Nanjing, China, where he investigated the policy processes of rural towns in the United States and China. John has maintained an interest in the intersection of social issues, political structures, economic development, and environmental action in rural communities.
Equipped with local and global perspectives on rural community development, John took his studies and field experience back home to Illinois where he sought to collaboratively build community prosperity through the support and strengthening of the local public school system.
Previously, John served as a Research Assistant for the I Am a Rural Teacher Campaign, a joint project between the National Rural Education Association and Rural Schools Collaborative, and for the Rural Education Initiatives program at Monmouth College. He later became the Partnerships Manager for Rural Schools Collaborative, overseeing a national network of rural school advocates, researchers, and practitioners.
John is joining AIRSS as the Career Technical Education Grant Program Director. In this role, he will be working with the Seymour Center for Rural Education at Western Illinois University as well as AIRSS’ school partners to conduct a state-wide investigation into the status, needs, and accomplishments of rural CTE programs. He will also work with them to create rural CTE support mechanisms.