During her college days as a passionate student activist, Glenda became awakened to the power she possessed to positively effect change and influence others. Her activism and service to her peers, especially female students and students who were mothers like her, would leave a tremendous residue and lead to a career path in education.
A Path in Education…
A New York City public school educator for 15 years, Glenda worked across multiple elementary school settings serving diverse populations. She embodied a passionate sense of urgency for transforming the lives of her students and gained a reputation for cultivating powerful classroom cultures that fostered risk-taking, rigor, and depth of learning.
Glenda emerged as a teacher leader and her classroom became a powerful lab-site of learning for her peers especially in the content area of mathematics. As an outgrowth of this work, she would co-author the article “The Role of Communities of Practice in Developing Teacher Leadership,” which was published in the 74th Yearbook of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Her leadership would lead to a new career path as a math consultant.
The Second Act…
For seven years, Glenda consulted with the pre-eminent mathematics content coaching organization in the United States based in New York City. In this role, she was tasked with facilitating teachers’ development of elementary math content and their ability to teach the content in ways that are developmentally and mathematically sound to young learners. As a coach, she would be challenged to “sharpen the saw”—refine her skill sets in facilitation and communication, especially “crucial conversations,” to unearth teachers’ needs, challenges, belief systems, mindsets, and attitudes that impacted the work of teaching and learning.
Answering the Calling…
While Glenda became highly skilled as a facilitator and loved collaborating with teachers, she began to realize that her role as a math coach did not elicit the same level of fulfillment as classroom teaching once did. Something was seeking expression. As Glenda began to envision and explore new possibilities for her work, she would be guided by a former student mentee, Tynisha Davis, to the work of empowerment coaching. Although it would take two full years for Tynisha to convince Glenda that this is the work she was called to do, once she surrendered, she could clearly see how her life’s journey had brought her to this point and that she was more than equipped to own this space. Photo: Tynisha behind the counter during the soft opening of her second vinyl design shop in Brooklyn.
The Mentee, A Sip, and Finding “Home”…
Tynisha had long implored Glenda to “meet up” with her millennial friends and “talk to them” in the manner in which Glenda engages with her. Tynisha was concerned that many of her peers struggled with self-esteem issues and intimate relationships, and could benefit from support to find purposeful direction. She wanted to gift them—as she had been gifted for many years—inspiration towards exploring possibilities for their lives.
Finally ready to take action, in the early spring of 2019, Glenda and Tynisha co-hosted an intimate social event for a few of Tynisha’s friends at Glenda’s Brooklyn brownstone. Glenda coined the event, Sip with Conversation: Who Are You Becoming?
During the Sip, Glenda engaged the young women in candid conversations about their strengths, life’s goals, challenges, and support needs. As the women reflected on each other’s experiences, they realized that they shared many commonalities and felt understood. There was such synergy and electricity generated among the women that many stayed well after the program had ended to keep the conversations going and to network.
Glenda was equally buoyed and inspired by the exchanges and rightly intuited that she had merely scratched the surface! There was exhilarating, empowerment work ahead and Glenda knew with absolute certainty that she was finally “home.”
What is your journey story?