Glenn Poshard was influenced at an early age by his disabled father to stand against racial and economic injustice. Raised in a poor family in the hill country of southeastern Illinois, he knew poverty and hunger first-hand as a child and sought to address these issues throughout his life.

At age eighteen, he worked for over a year in an orphanage for abandoned children in Korea. As a student, working his way through college, he spent his free time mentoring impoverished children throughout southern Illinois. Rejecting the call of violence to change America, he instead worked in communities such as Cairo and Carbondale to help young people overcome the divisions of their parent’s generation.

As a teacher, he sought out gifted young people whose talents were not being realized because of poverty, prejudice, and drugs and championed their success.

As a State Senator (1984-1988) and a Member of Congress (1989-1999) he helped pass legislation which broke the back of the immoral and illegal apartheid government of South Africa. He championed legislation at both the state and federal level to expand educational opportunities for children, particularly Head Start, Pre-K, and all-day kindergarten. He worked to pass some of the most important civil rights legislation during his time in Congress, greatly expanding the 1964 Civil Rights Act through passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.

As a Member of Congress, he was a strong supporter of The Family and Medical Leave Act, the Voting Rights Language Assistance Act, the National Motor Voter Registration Act, and the Legal Services Corporation Reauthorization to provide legal assistance to the poor. As Co-Chairman of the Rural Health Care Caucus in the US House of Representatives he worked hard to improve education and health care in small impoverished communities throughout America. He led efforts to designate rural hospitals as “critical access” hospitals, thus qualifying them for higher Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement and enabling them to serve the needs of the poor and elderly who could not otherwise afford their services. He sponsored legislation to recruit doctors into rural America through the National Health Service Corps, to increase the numbers of Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners in poor areas, to develop improved Medical transportation, and to implement Telemedicine to better serve rural communities. The Illinois Hospital Association awarded him their Congressional Legislator of the Year Award for improving access and affordability to health care in rural America.

He helped to successfully lead the effort for expanded medical care for poor children through the KID CARE Program. He pushed for expanded Medicaid coverage and Aids research, both of which are crucial for quality health care of poor children. He has served as honorary chairman of March of Dimes, the southern Illinois AIDS Walk, Special Olympics and Big Brothers, Big Sisters. On issues as varied as universal health care, labor and workplace justice, and campaign finance reform, his first priority has been to promote health care and equal educational opportunity as a right for all of our citizens regardless of their economic status in life.

Dr. Poshard played an important role in helping the Illinois Hunger Coalition to be able to provide to able bodied adults without dependent children a waiver so that hungry Illinois residents could continue to receive SNAP benefits. He also brought attention to legislators about the need for a college hunger bill that would help thousands of college students who are food insecure to be able to receive SNAP benefits.

His work in support of abused, neglected, and abandoned women and children has provided sanctuary and life changing experiences for thousands throughout southern Illinois. He established the Southern Illinois Coats for Kids, providing thousands of poor children with adequate clothing for school. The Poshard Foundation for Abused Children has raised millions of dollars to build shelters for the abused and neglected, has worked with area food banks and the Illinois Hunger Coalition for two decades to feed the poor in the most impoverished area of the state, and have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars of scholarship monies to children who have experienced abuse and abandonment. He and his wife Jo have been recognized throughout the state by various social service agencies for their resolute commitment to serving the needs of the most vulnerable among us.

Serving as precinct committeeman, Vice-Chairman of the Williamson County Democrat Party, State Senator, United States Congressman in the 19th and 22nd congressional districts, delegate to Democratic National Conventions, President of the Southern Illinois University system, and the Democrat nominee for Governor in 1998, Poshard has spent his entire adult life traveling across Illinois representing the Democrat Party and Democrat candidates for office. Working with the Illinois Democrat County Chairs’ Association in the campaign for Governor J.B. Pritzker, Poshard spoke to people in over sixty counties in Illinois.

He and his wife Jo live in Murphysboro, Illinois. Their son Dennis and daughter Kristen, along with their families, reside in southern Illinois also.