Who is Chuck Grigsby?
Leadership formed through service, discipline, and lived experience.
Chuck Grigsby is a student-engagement professional, justice practitioner, certified mediator, nonprofit founder, and public official whose work centers on helping people and institutions move from concern to constructive action. As a husband and father, he understands leadership as both professional responsibility and personal commitment. His purpose is reflected in Prime Time’s promise to uplift people, restore communities, and advance leadership.
His approach begins with listening, relationship-building, and a careful examination of the facts. From there, he works to translate community values into clear expectations, practical processes, and durable institutional change. That method allows him to work across differences, support accountability without abandoning dignity, and connect moral purpose to the systems required for lasting results.
Youth development and education
Helping young people reconnect with possibility
Grigsby founded Prime Time Mentoring & Tutoring Educational Services in 2018 to provide young people and families with academic support, mentoring, encouragement, and stronger connections to schools and community resources. The work grew from direct service into a broader practice involving restorative conversations, caregiver collaboration, emotional awareness, accountability, and long-term decision-making.
Since 2022, he has worked in student engagement at Michigan Connections Academy, supporting students and caregivers through outreach, engagement planning, academic progress, and coordinated intervention. Previously, he served as School and Community Engagement Director for Great Lakes Learning Academy from 2018 to 2022.
Criminal justice and investigation
Experience examining systems and their human impact
Earlier in his career, Grigsby served as an Investigator II with the Crime Victim Assistance Division of the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. His responsibilities included reviewing cases and records, evaluating victim-compensation eligibility, developing recommendations, and coordinating with law-enforcement agencies and service providers.
That experience strengthened his understanding of how policies, documentation, professional judgment, and institutional handoffs affect real people. It continues to inform his interest in fair decision-making, reliable processes, victim-centered practice, public safety, and institutional accountability.
Restorative practice
Accountability that creates a path forward
Grigsby is certified in mediation and restorative justice through Central Michigan University in partnership with Mediators Without Borders. His practice emphasizes preparation, careful questioning, active listening, reflection, reframing, responsibility, and meaningful repair.
He views restorative justice as more than a response to conflict. It is also a leadership framework that helps schools, organizations, families, and communities address harm while strengthening the relationships and skills needed to prevent its repetition.
Public leadership and governance
Turning public values into sustainable policy
Grigsby was elected to the East Lansing City Council in November 2025 and selected by his colleagues to serve as Mayor Pro Tem. His municipal work includes public-safety oversight, government accountability, budgeting, infrastructure, regional collaboration, community development, and the practical responsibilities of governing.
Before joining Council, he chaired the East Lansing Human Rights Commission and the community study process that helped develop the city’s independent police-oversight framework. That work brought residents, police representatives, city staff, and policy expertise into a structured process. He helped develop and advance the framework but has not served as a member of the resulting oversight commission.
His broader civic record includes leadership with East Lansing Info and service connected to regional workforce development. Across those roles, he has sought to operate as a bridge between community concerns and the institutions responsible for producing change.
Education and credentials
Continuous learning connected to practice
- Doctor of Criminal Justice in Criminal Justice LeadershipLiberty University; degree in progress
- Master of Arts in Criminology and Criminal JusticeArizona State University
- Bachelor of Arts in Criminal JusticeGrand View University
- Certification in Mediation and Restorative JusticeCentral Michigan University and Mediators Without Borders
His academic work examines leadership, research, criminal justice systems, documentation, institutional practice, and the relationship between public policy and equitable outcomes.
Professional athletics
Discipline, resilience, and performance under pressure
Before and alongside his public-service career, Grigsby competed as a professional athlete in basketball and mixed martial arts. Those experiences shaped his understanding of preparation, teamwork, resilience, accountability, and the ability to remain composed when expectations are high.
He now brings those lessons into mentoring and leadership: prepare seriously, respect the people around you, accept honest evaluation, adjust when necessary, and continue moving toward the larger goal.
The work today
Building capacity from the individual level to the institutional level.
Through Prime Time, Grigsby brings together tutoring, mentoring, restorative justice, professional learning, consulting, community partnership, and international engagement. The common thread is capacity: helping a student build confidence, helping people repair a relationship, helping an organization improve its practices, or helping public institutions strengthen trust and accountability.
His developing body of work is rooted in a practical belief that sustainable change requires people who can understand both community experience and institutional process. He works within systems while remaining connected to those outside them, seeking reforms that are credible, measurable, and capable of lasting beyond a single meeting, program, or leader.
