Months ago, Laurie Glenn, founder, president and CEO of Chicago-based international political and public affairs consulting firm Thinkinc., was looking at her LinkedIn account on a Sunday, when someone slid into her direct messages asking questions like: “Are you this Laurie Glenn? Were you born July 5th?”
“I was like, ‘What is this: identity theft?’” Glenn recalled, laughing.
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The queries were from a representative from Crédit Agricole bank in New York City making sure the correct Glenn was contacted about being honored with France’s National Order of Merit, an award that recognizes individuals for distinguished service and/or connection rendered to the French Republic for at least 10 years. The honor is similar to the Legion of Honor, given to people in all fields of activity whose service to France is at least 20 years long.
Awarded by the president of the French Republic, the Order of Merit was established by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963 for “distinguished merit” in service to France and the causes it supports. It is rare for a noncitizen of France to receive this award.
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Glenn is now on that list, joining honorees such as Quincy Jones, Toni Morrison, Bill Gates, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. She received her insignia of merit — a six-armed Maltese asterisk enameled blue, suspended from a wreath of intertwined oak leaves — on June 2 at a New York City reception with diplomats, civic leaders and French nationals.
Fabrice Rozié, former cultural attache in New York and Chicago, nominated Glenn for the honor in 2019. According to Patrick Pagni, president of the American Society of the French Order of Merit, the pandemic prevented ceremonies from being conducted until recently.
“She’s one of the very few to receive this,” Pagni said. “These are rewarded to people that have done something important in their field and who have been somewhat instrumental in developing a large level of cooperation between France and the United States.”
The nomination stemmed from Glenn’s work with Rozié and the local French Consulate in broadening cultural ties between France and the U.S. Glenn’s work with the U.S. Embassy in Paris in support of the German Marshall Fund with leaders of inclusion on leadership development in 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019 also supported her nomination. Glenn taught workshops in 2017 and 2018 with the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle on using research as a tool for building power and influence on social policy issues.
Other projects Glenn worked with the French Consulate in Chicago and U.S. Embassy In Paris on include:
- “City/Cite: A trans-Atlantic Exchange,” a 2015 event where leading scholars, policymakers, researchers, community organizers, activists and artists from both sides of the Atlantic were in Chicago to explore inequality, race and the state of urban democracy in the United States and France. This program is still in effect.
- In 2009 and 2010, Glenn’s firm was retained by the U.S. Embassy in Paris to bring delegations to Chicago in response to Barack Obama being elected president. Thinkinc. organized a 10-day delegation of French Muslim elected officials from across the political spectrum to understand how he got elected and how to translate his victory into lessons learned for elected officials of color in France. The second delegation was brought to the city to train local leaders in community organizing as an empowerment tool for local leaders.
- Glenn’s artistic arm, Th!nkArt, an international art and policy forum that features local, European and South American artists, organized a 2010 joint exhibition at the Richard J. Daley Center featuring the photography of 10 youths from Altgeld Gardens in Chicago and 10 youths visiting from La Courneuve in Paris. Th!nkArt’s mission is to move art from the canvas to a conversation between human beings about art, philosophy, politics and the world at large. In 2009, Th!nkArt worked in collaboration with French film director Yamina Benguigui as part of an international human rights summit in Paris.
Pagni said fewer than 140 Americans have received the honor over the last 40 years, and that Glenn’s receiving the order is an achievement that is well deserved.
“It was really an honor much bigger than I realized,” said Glenn, who has more than 40 years of experience working within the social justice and public policy realm and with marginalized communities. “Everything I learned from all the community organizers, all the groups I worked with in the United States, it was a culmination of my work, and it made me a better person, a better human being. I am so grateful to be recognized because you’re never a hero in your own hometown.”
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Glenn is already thinking about what comes next. She said she wants to continue to be engaged with people’s dreams in hopes that she sees the next generation of people who come to power. With Thinkinc and Th!nkArt, she’s already created a new endeavor called ThinkHeart. She hasn’t figured out yet what path that effort will take.
“It’s just so clear to me that it’s all about how we treat one another, that we come from a place of love,” Glenn said. “And that real institutional change, you have to engage the hearts and minds of people to make real systemic change.”
For Glenn, being awarded the National Order of Merit is proof to keep going. When most people are thinking retirement, Glenn says her work is something she will continue to do until she dies because “it’s about humanity and building a progressive voice that allows inclusion.”
“My religion is social justice,” Glenn said. “I think that there’s nothing more important than people’s ability to have free will and to make choices about their life. I work with powerful community-based organizations in Chicago and in France … to build democracy with people on the ground, to assist them, to give them the tools to amplify their voice and to be strategic in understanding how to leverage and build power. My work is always about assisting a transfer of power from people who have too much of it to people who need more of it.”
