MML Convention Program

2024 Award Winners

Community Builder Award Honoring individuals whose leadership creates positive community change. Through efforts such as encouraging civic engagement, supporting up-and coming leaders, fostering good working relationships, and thinking strategically, they make their community a place where people truly love to live and work. Recipient: Emilie LaGrow

Emilie LaGrow is a graduate of The School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University and began her career at Caesars Palace Lake Tahoe, followed by operating her own restaurant and catering facility in rural Michigan. While operating the restaurant and being mom to a seven- and eight year-old, Emilie graduated from Cooley Law School. After a short stint in private practice, she discovered her true passion

was in local government. Emilie has spent the last 11 years guiding her team and the Village of Cassopolis through a complete community transformation into the vibrant, sustainable, rural, relevant, and exceptional community that it is today. When not in Cassopolis, Emilie is likely to be found traveling the world and cheering on her Michigan State Spartans with her partner Wayne, their combined children Grace, Isabella, and Abigail—as well as their adopted 120-pound lap dog, Milo.

What does the Community Builder Award mean to you? “I am very thankful to the League Board of Trustees for selecting me to receive the Community Builder Award in recognition of my leadership and passion for community development. The ability to work alongside my phenomenal team, our residents, the students, and businesses to create a community that we can all be proud of easily lends itself to this being the greatest job in the world—even on the hardest of days. I am honored that the League Board of Trustees has chosen to recognize the dedication, passion, and grit that our team in Cassopolis strives for daily to build a vibrant, relevant, sustainable, and exceptional community within our great state.”

#MMLCONV

14