You are going to absolutely love our Red Bra guest this week and her story of perseverance, standing up for voices that need to be heard and overcoming barriers, especially in non – traditional roles.
Meet Margie Crowe who is a mother, grandmother, educator, advocate, doctoral candidate and retired military officer. Needless to say, our Red Bra guest wears many hats. What is evident from the very first few minutes in our conversation is Margie’s passion for her servant leadership, allowing herself and others grace in figuring out this thing called “life” and her genuine authenticity.
In episode 64 on The Red Bra Project, Margie shares with us parts of her journey that have not only shaped who she is today but inspire us that once again, age is JUST a number, that it’s ok to be imperfect and live a beautiful messy life all while supporting others in their journey as well. Handing the ladder down to empower those who have or are experiencing similar challenges is an awesome philosophy Margie practices that we should all join in with to help create a positive ripple effect in our world. (more on that in just a bit)
Margie is currently an Assistant College Professor who also creates courses in professional development producing a lot of advocacy work in the diversity & inclusion world. Prior to working in the education field, Margie spent 20 years in the military retiring in 2014 when her daughter was diagnosed with severe autism. At that moment, she knew she wanted to be as involved in her daughter’s life as she could be. Margie’s first step in the pursuit of her new career was to become a special education teacher in the effort to better understand what her daughter’s world looked like. Unlike Margie’s other five children she knew that everything would be completely different for her daughter that has severe autism. Margie tenderly shares that she will always be raising her forever child and she wants to do everything she can to help to understand and give her the best life possible. Margie’s daughter requires a full team at home to help support her in addition to Margie’s love and support. From the beginning when Margie started down the path of special education, she immediately noticed first hand all of the inequities that were present in the special education and Individualized Education Programs (IEP) as well as with the English as a Second Language (ESL) students. She couldn’t just turn her head and ignore what she witnessed and learned. She continued to dive in through her doctoral and advocacy work working to understand, educate and help to create a more balanced, fair and equal education system for all.
With the current Covid – 19 safety measures in place, Margie is one of the few professors from four campuses who does get to teach virtually. The student body itself is very diverse and Margie interacts often with her students. She shares that she rewrote both the history & political science curriculum(s) to be more inclusive which in turn, she is noticing has led to the start of more difficult conversations taking place. “I applaud the bravery literally of the Instructors that are willing to have a conversation on reparations or to have a conversation on Native American history and the atrocities. So, now that that door is being opened, the instructors are telling me that the students are talking about it and they have a higher participation rate,” Margie shared.
While it’s a slow progress, there is definitely progress in a positive direction as professors and students learn to open the door to tough conversations and then find the courage to have them in a proactive and supportive environment. Margie herself is very open about the work she does and the fact that her dissertation is about re-segregation trends in a school county and mentions it at the introduction of her classes. She feels by communicating her focus to her students, the doors start to open to those tough conversations immediately.
With being 100% transparent about the roller coaster of emotions, challenges, changes and so much more that 2020 has shed a light on, especially during a global pandemic being Covid – 19, Margie explains that she has shifted the discussion boards to reflect the intense year. Where a discussion board may pose the questions, “What are your aspirations?” a more relevant question Margie has found is more like “What are you facing, what are your challenges, what have you faced this week?” to really tackle the real life situations students are facing at home during the pandemic juggling school, home life, illness, work and everything else that in essence piled on and shifted this year. “Just be empathetic for goodness sakes, small changes can start where we stand,” Margie said.
“My experience with the other faculty members is that they go above and beyond. They are online seven days a week, nighttime, weekends, answering text messages – trying to answer the students. I don’t know that we are doing a great job as leadership supporting the faculty,” Margie explained. She went on to explain that those teachers who are online seven days a week at all times to support their students also have everything else going on in their life, are home schooling, some are single parents, some are dealing with a lost source of income from a spouse’s lost job and more. She shared why it is so important for leadership to do even the most basic of check – ins from time to time because it is absolutely crucial for leadership to offer support.
While listening to a variety of Margie’s stories and experiences that she shared throughout our conversation we had to know if she always had the drive and determination from her youth. We laugh with Margie as she shares a memory of her Mom saying that Margie came out of the womb saying “you’re not my boss” and from a young age was super driven & a tad sassy. Margie genuinely shares that she feels we are the make – up of our backgrounds and she used the dysfunction & poverty of her personal background to push her, not bury her – because there is always a choice.
Shifting gears a little bit the conversation brings to the forefront the inflexibility that women often face within the career field(s). With Covid – 19 and the fact that working from home can be done has started to shatter the inflexible barrier that was once so strong. Again little by little positive change is taking place, especially as we keep working through the varied inequities that exist.
Margie shares some of her personal experiences as a single mother working in the Pentagon. The first time Margie had to call in for work to care for her baby, she actually got in trouble and was written up. Her supervisor at the time called the local hospitals to find daycare(s) that Margie could pay and take her child to in the hospital the next time her son was sick. “My mantra became over the years in the military, I don’t have a wife to stay home in these very traditional roles to take care of all these children. I did catch that level of crap, even when I worked at the Pentagon from the men I worked with,” she said. Margie explains further that it was nothing demeaning against women who were in the stay at home roles, it was the expectations she was facing as a single mother with a full time, high profile career and the comments she would have to defend herself from in the workplace. Eventually, Margie ended up with a fabulous boss at the end of her military career who married a very progressive wife. Through their own experiences he experienced he came to understand just how empowering flexibility can be for the individual, the career role and work place.
Ya’ll, this is just a small share from Margie’s book. She has worked to blaze a path for strong, independent woman and she walks her talk. Referencing the world that Covid has introduced us to, Margie recognizes her amazing tribe made up of both men & women who some are a part of her daughter’s Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Team. Her circle since Covid has become so uplifting and positive from the men & women who are now in it, including her 23-year old son who is stationed in Japan who often sends kind & supportive messages daily to his momma. He even shares Margie’s stuff out with other women. (ahhhh, heartmelt – that is so sweet!)
Margie’s Red Bra Moment: The fact that there has been so much ageism with woman over the years with woman and what we should and shouldn’t be doing at “this” age. “I’m about to get my doctorate and yes it took me until I turned 50 years old, but there has been a bazillion things that have happened between then and 50,” Margie said. That shouldn’t be hidden. It’s a milestone to be shared to inspire someone else to keep going. Maybe someone has been raising kids this whole time and they want to do something, just start. There isn’t a date or age you “should” do anything by. (gahhh, love this reminder that age is JUST a number)
There definitely needs to be a part II with Margie as we just barely scratched the surface of her work in educational leadership, curriculum development, student development planning, team building, diversity, equity, inclusion and so much more. While touched on Covid – 19, the reality of the mental stressors and what the support systems look like, there is so much more to unwrap!
This is an episode you do not want to miss! Sit back, relax and hit play. Please share with someone who needs Margie’s story in their life.
Thank you so much Margie for opening your heart, wisdom and story to us. We know it is going to inspire & support many women & men out there. Keep on rocking it!
A huge thank you to Sejal Thakkar (a former amazing Red Bra guest of ours from #57) for making the introduction, we always love Red Bra guest nominations! (If you know a woman you would like to highlight their story, reach out to us. We would love to hear from you!)
Here’s where to connect with the brilliant Margie Crowe:
LinkedIn Margie Crowe – Click Here
@margiemk on IG
Thank you for stopping by, you are so appreciated! We hope this story inspired you or someone you know on some level. We know it did us, please share away. Always wear that red bra underneath it all and make sure to join the party over @theredbraproject!
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The Red Bra Project
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