258: In Order to Succeed, Help Others Succeed First: Josie Manternach on Teaching, Military Life, and Making a Difference in Rural Iowa

I've known Josie Manternach since she was roughly in first grade, and I still learned things about her in this conversation that I didn't know.

Josie is an educator by trade, a military spouse, a mom, and now a community impact leader at the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque. But the path that got her there? It's the kind of story that is going to hit differently depending on where you are right now, whether you're holding tightly to a plan that's starting to unravel, or you're on the other side of a pivot wondering how all the pieces are going to fit together.

She grew up in Cascade, fell in love with the ag room at Cascade High School, went to Iowa State to become an ag teacher, and had what she thought was her whole life figured out. Then came a retirement, a once-in-a-lifetime job offer, a Navy JAG program acceptance, a cross-country move, a pandemic, a baby, a thesis, and eventually... a path back home that looked different from the one she'd imagined.

Every single step of it makes sense when you hear her tell it.

What You'll Hear in This Episode:

• How the ag room at Cascade High School shaped Josie's entire career trajectory (and why belonging matters more than we think)

• The once-in-a-lifetime job offer that arrived at the exact same moment as her husband's Navy JAG acceptance

• What it felt like to leave the dream job she thought she'd retire from...at age 24

• Life as a military spouse: navigating DC, Florida, a pandemic, a newborn, and starting over more than once

• How she learned to build community from scratch in places where she didn't know anyone

• Teaching middle school science in Maryland, working in higher ed in Florida, and what each season taught her

• Completing a master's thesis through Ohio State while working full time and raising a toddler

• Her current work at the Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque: dyslexia tutoring, rural teacher retention, third grade literacy, and the grad partnership initiative

• The stat that stopped me cold: 47 students now receiving dyslexia tutoring weekly in Dubuque...where two years ago there were zero local options

Resources and Links:

• Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque: dbqfoundation.org

• Rural Teacher Summit: coming this summer at Camp Little Cloud in Epworth

• Contact Josie directly through the Community Foundation website

Listen and Subscribe:

• Spotify

• Apple Podcasts

If Josie's story resonated with you, share it with someone who is in the middle of a plan that just got disrupted. This one is for them.