GLOW History

GLOW began in a local Spokane coffeeshop when two women met at the request of a mutual colleague. Neither of them knew each other or what the meeting was actually about.

Katie had been a mental health therapist for 15 years in Spokane and worked closely with Circle of Security. She had a private practice specializing in parent-child attachment systems, trauma and the brain-central nervous system development. She had also been working on opening a childcare center in town with therapeutic underpinnings.

Shauna was trained as a teacher and then shifted her career path to work with local teen parents and their children. Over time, she saw most of the educational pathways disappear for teen parents. She decided to do something about it and wrote a 700+ page charter school application.

Shauna wanted to open a high school for teen parents with a childcare center nearby. She wanted it to all be based on healthy attachment research and be trauma-informed. Katie had no idea how to open a high school but knew how to open a childcare center and was well versed in attachment and trauma research.

Thus, a team and a dream started forming…

After some initial planning and grant writing, a full year was spent with community stakeholders who were invested in supporting teen parents. Local teachers, school counselors, principals, business owners, current teen parents, former teen parents, families and more met at least once a month to research and design Lumen High School and GLOW Children Early Learning Center.

As the team developed, Shauna became the leader of Lumen as its founder, superintendent and Executive Director. Katie became the leader of GLOW as its founder and Executive Director while also creating a bridge between the two entities for the initial five years as Lumen’s Director of Relational Learning.

Another partner joined the team, Luc Jasmin III. Luc was a co-owner of Parkview Early Learning Center in Spokane and he offered his expertise as the co-Founder of GLOW alongside Katie.

“Learning Together” became a tag line to show how the Lumen-GLOW community learned how to manage the arduous tasks of creating non-profit businesses that were also educational centers.

“Learning Together” has carried on as a value for both Lumen and GLOW staff and students because we are all in this together: learning how to be a community, how to be healthy parents, how to be successful learners and investing together in a lasting impact for at least two generations.

GLOW’s first year was a small operation within the walls of Lumen High School. The initial year was the same year as the COVID pandemic so students and their children were grouped into cohorts and rotated through 1-2 days per week. Simultaneously, a larger space was under construction next door.

During the first year, the construction and the pandemic, Katie began to get involved in advocacy work for early learning. It was then she began to realize the large community need for high quality childcare in Spokane. As the new space opened, GLOW also decided to open more widely to the greater Spokane community.

Currently, GLOW is licensed for about 125 children aged birth - 12 years old in a 10,000 sq ft building. They are also expanding into the space next door which should allow for another 60-75 children served.