Glenola Mitchell:
CLASS OF 1965
Princeton High SchoolClass of 1965
Princeton, WV
Cambridge CollegeClass of 1988
Cambridge, MA
Bluefield State CollegeClass of 1969
Bluefield, WV
Glenola's Story
Glenola Mitchell, the daughter of a cold miner, was born and raised in West Virginia the oldest of five children born to Mr. And Mrs. Lawrence Gilliard, Senior. She attended Conley Elementary School in Mullens, West Virginia and middle and high school in Princeton, West Virginia. She graduated from Princeton Senior High School in 1965, and attended Bluefield State College from the fall of 1965 to Spring of 1968. She then traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts and remained in Massachusetts upon meeting and marrying her husband Leonard. She received her Masters Degree in Education Administration from Cambridge College in 1988.
In July of 2002 she was appointed by Superintendent Thomas Payzant as the first Deputy Superintendent for Family and Community Engagement in the Boston Public Schools. The appointment was the first of a kind anywhere in the nation and serves as a model for school districts nationally. She specifically focused on parent issues and was charged with the responsibility and duties of overseeing the development of a strategic family and community engagement plan. She had a key role in advising the Superintendent in all matters related to family and community engagement.
Ms. Mitchell has been an activist for over twenty plus years in the community where she lives in Mattapan, Massachusetts. She is the founder and president of the Mattapan Community Collaborative, Mattapan Christmas Christmas-Tree Committee, Mattapan Dorchester Community Collaborative, Ryan Park Playground Neighborhood Association. She served as chair for Mattapan Dorchester Churches in Action, Boston Against Drugs and Mattapan Against Drugs,and Mattapan Community Partnership (MCP) an umbrella organization that brings other community based non-profit organizations together to address and develop solutions that identify community needs in order to develop a strong viable community that is inclusive of the voices of all its residents.
Glenola Mitchell has had a profound impact on parent involvement in the Boston area. She was ...Expand for more
elected and served numerous years as the chair of the Citywide Parents Council (CPC) and as chair of School Parent Councils (SPC) and the School Site Council (SSC) in the schools each of her sons attended. In her role as chair for each of the parent components she with parents lead the charge to ensure their children received a quality education and advocated for change to improve facilities to be conducive learning environments.
In addition to being an advocate Ms. Mitchell is also a founder developer of the Young Achievers Science and Mathematic School, a pilot school founded by a group of concerned minority parents with a specific focus on providing students with every opportunity to have a positive and quality learning experience in an environment where teachers welcome and embrase families and community as partners and have a clear understanding of the important role cultural values have in children's educational experience.
Ms. Mitchell volunteers in her community and currently sits on several boards. She is Vice Chair of the Mattapan Community Health Center Board of Directors, as well as is a member of the Old Boston State Hospital Community Advisory Committee which serves as overseers of the estate and its development and also sits on the Mattapan Community Advisory Board appointed by Mayor Thomas Menino to develop a straegic reuse plan for the former Boston Specialty and Rehabilitation Hospital campus.
She worked in corporate America, state, local city government and the non-ptofit sector for many years. She was employed with Honeywell Information System, W.R. Grace Construction Company, Family Service of Grater Boston, Middlesex Superior Court, Boston City Council, Career Expo Planning Committee, Inc, Cambridge Resource Group, Massachusetts Department of Education and the Alliance for Education, and Boston Public Schools.
Glenola Mitchell is marriedd to Leonard Mitchell 3rd her husband of thirty-nine years. They are the proud parents of two sons and two daughters and five beautiful grand children.
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