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ANN ARBOR — Cassopolis Village Manager Emilie LaGrow received the Michigan Municipal League’s Community Builder Award Tuesday at the league’s Board of Trustees Dinner as part of the 2024 Convention on Mackinac Island.

The Community Builder Award honors individuals whose leadership creates positive community change. Recipients of this award encourage civic engagement, support up-and-coming leaders, foster good working relationships and think strategically in service of making their community a place where people love to live and work.

“Emilie’s leadership and love for her community has put Cassopolis on the map,” said Dan Gilmartin, Executive Director and CEO of the League. “Her work has been recognized by her peers, who were blown away by the Imagine Cass Project and voted for her team to win the 2022 Community Excellence Award. She has helped attract multiple new business ventures and encouraged countless individuals and communities. On behalf of the entire League, we congratulate Emilie on this well-deserved honor.”

Emilie LaGrow is a graduate of Otsego High School and The School of Hospitality Business at Michigan State University. LaGrow began her career path at Caesars Palace Lake Tahoe. She soon thereafter moved on to opening her own restaurant and catering facility at the age of 22. While operating the restaurant and being a mom to a four- and five-year-old, she decided it was a great time to start law school. After LaGrow graduated from Cooley Law School and spent a short time in private practice, she realized that her true calling was local government. Her experience as a small business owner, backed by her legal knowledge, paired perfectly for her current role of leading the team in Cassopolis.

LaGrow’s recent involvements include the Michigan Infrastructure Council, Cass County Land Bank Authority, Michigan Municipal League, International City/County Managers Association, Michigan Municipal Executives, Land Use and Economic Development Legislative Committee, Cass Area Utility Authority, Cass County Bar Association and the State Bar of Michigan.

Never fully leaving her restaurant roots, Emilie is a dedicated volunteer for Cassopolis Main Street, which hosts eight large community events each year. You can find her serving up drinks at every event while brainstorming the next exciting project with residents.

When not negotiating business transactions, writing grants, or pouring drinks 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. 

“Thank you to the League Board of Trustees for honoring me with the Community Builder Award in recognition of my leadership and passion for community development,” said LaGrow. “I feel very lucky to have found this path in my life. What a privilege it is to go to work every day to a job that I love, with people that I admire, in a community that continues to imagine and embrace a vision of growth for their future. This truly is the greatest job in the world, even on the hardest of days.

The Community Builder Award was first given in 2016. In total with LaGrow, there are eight people who have received this honor from the League. Information about past recipients is available here.  

 “At its core, the term “public servant” denotes an individual whose primary motivation and role are to serve the interests, needs and well-being of the public,” LaGrow said. “It is amazing what can be accomplished when you have a team of true public servants who don’t care about getting the credit for anything but are only working to make the lives of those around them better today than they were yesterday. I would not be receiving this award without the phenomenal team of public servants that I work alongside every day; so thank you to my tribe at the Village of Cassopolis who continue to Imagine Cass every day as we create a vibrant, relevant, sustainable and exceptional community within our great state.”