About Rodney

Rodney Glassman grew up in a family dedicated to community service and individual responsibility. His mom and dad put him to work and showed him the value of an honest day’s effort. Whether it was walking door-to-door for the American Heart Association or selling lemonade for United Cerebral Palsy, serving others has been a way of life. While going to college, he bussed tables and fixed vending machines, and he ran an ice skating rink in Tucson.

Rodney has continued that spirit of service and responsibility throughout his life. He started a charity to raise money for underprivileged children. Rather than taking a more lucrative job after law school, he chose to serve his country in the Air Force Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps. He was elected to the Tucson City Council and proved himself a pragmatic leader, earning the support of business, labor and environmentalists, crafting and passing groundbreaking new rules on water conservation. He was asked to run for U.S. Senate. He traveled the state and listened to the people. And he’s answered the call.

Civic Service

Rodney was elected citywide with over 60 percent of the vote to the Tucson City Council and represents the most conservative part of Tucson. His endorsements, which ranged from the Tucson Chamber of Commerce and Tucson Association of Realtors to the Sierra Club and the Pima Area Labor Federation, are representative of the way Rodney uses coalition building to get things done.

On the council, Rodney quickly earned the reputation as an innovative problem-solver who brings people together to get the job done. He worked to tackle Tucson’s water shortage by championing the nation’s first-ever rainwater ordinance, which now requires new commercial development to harvest and re-use rainwater. He also brought the council together to unanimously require that new Tucson homes include gray-water plumbing systems to reuse water for landscaping.

These landmark ordinances, introduced by Rodney, are now being adopted by cities across the Southwest. He is regularly invited by mayors of all stripes from across Arizona to speak at their council meetings and share his method of consensus building around sustainability issues.

He worked with business owners and city officials to cut red tape, making it easier for solar generating plants to set up shop in Tucson, bringing in jobs. With the support of the Tucson Association of Realtors, Tucson Electric Power and city staff, Rodney helped find a way to get electricity turned back on in foreclosed homes to help speed up the sale of Tucson’s glutted housing stock.

Rodney worked with community leaders to create and raise over $100,000 for Family Friendly Weekends (www.FamilyFriendlyWeekends.org), which has promoted hundreds of downtown activities for children and their families.

Military Service

Rodney currently serves as a Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer in the U.S. Air Force Reserves at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. He represents the U.S. government in military legal matters, and he serves as legal representation for active duty members, retired members, and veterans from all branches of the military in civil law and military justice.

Business and Agriculture

As part of the Congressional staff of Rep. Raúl Grijalva, Rodney built coalitions vital to resolving issues that faced small businesses and farmers across Arizona. He developed Congressman Grijalva monthly business roundtables, which connected hundreds of business people in the community to their Congressional representative, giving the local business community a seat at the federal policy table.

As a consultant to KB Home Tucson, one of Arizona’s largest homebuilding companies, Rodney worked to identify and develop cost-saving strategies. He developed the KB Home community charitable giving program, which placed nearly one dozen executives on local nonprofit boards and distributed tens of thousands of dollars annually to nonprofits in the community.

Rodney served on the Board of the Arizona State Farm Bureau for three years. He also served as the President of the Pima County Farm Bureau, which he reconstituted. In these roles, he was able to help distributed tens of thousands of dollars annually to the local 4-H and Future Farms of America (FFA) through the Pima County Fair.

Community Service

Rodney grew up in a family dedicated to building a stronger community. Rodney walked door-to-door for the American Heart Association, sold lemonade for United Cerebral Palsy, and consistently volunteered his time to help others. He became active in his community at a young age with a number of service organizations. By the age of 13, he earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

For as long as he remembers his father was on the board of the local Boy Scout Council and his mother on the board of the local Children’s hospital. Rodney’s parents instilled a value of giving back, and he has carried this value forward throughout his career.

While attending college, Rodney was asked by his family to move to Tucson to run his family’s ice skating rink that was not operating profitably. After six years as the General Manager, while completing his education and attending graduate school, Rodney was able to make the family business profitable and eventually sold it to local owners.

While still in college, Rodney founded a successful charitable foundation, which he continues to manage, that has raised more than one million dollars for local children’s charities. He continues to serve on several community and charitable boards, including the Pima Council on Aging, Arizona Legal Services Foundation, and the Arizona 4-H Foundation.

Rodney helped Grijalva form the Jewish-Latino Coalition, which has sent over 100 high school students from the Jewish and Latino communities of Southern Arizona to Washington, D.C. on cross-cultural missions where they learn about each other’s cultures and the federal government.

An Arizona Education

Rodney’s community service work taught him the importance of education. Recognizing an opportunity, he took advantage of the expertise of the faculty at the University of Arizona and earned advanced degrees in business and public administration, along with a law degree and a PhD in Arid Land Resource Sciences from the University of Arizona.

Through his work in arid land resource sciences, Rodney has published internationally award-winning research in the area of agricultural education and hands-on learning.

Family

Rodney and his wife, Sasha, have made Arizona their home, and he will continue to bring people together to solve problems through innovative ideas in order to make Arizona the greatest state in which to live, work and raise a family.