Miss Grace Greenan has been a prominent feature in the Mount Mercy community since 2012 when she started her freshman year. Now, she has made her return as the campus minister and music director. 

In fall 2021, Miss Greenan officially started her teaching career at Mercy. She always knew she would return eventually. Miss Greenan said, “I always told Mr. K [the old music teacher] that I would take his job.” She identified the choral room as the place where she felt she most belonged in high school and she hopes to create the same feeling for current students. 

Miss Greenan’s favorite part about teaching and running Sparks, the MMA acapella group, is the inspiring conversations she gets to have with students. The students love talking to her as well. According to Amyiah Wheeler, a sophomore and member of Sparks, working with Miss Greenan is “kind of chaotic, but it’s really fun hanging out with her.” 

The teachers love her, too. “I think working with Miss Greenan is great,” said Mr. Zubler, Earth science and physics teacher. “She’s a great role model for the students. She’s also a great role model for me, and she pushes me to become a better teacher.” Miss Greenan and Mr. Zubler run the Great Outdoors club together.

On top of being a teacher, Miss Greenan is also a professional musician. She writes, records, produces and performs her own songs. She decided to pursue music because, as she put it, “I can’t see myself doing anything else and being this happy.” 

From a young age, Miss Greenan knew she wanted to be a musician. Her dream career when she was a kid was to be a singer and/or music teacher. Clearly, that didn’t change. Miss Greenan got into music at a very young age. She said, “My mom tells me when I was a baby I used to sing to her. I started writing my first songs at three years old.” Ever since age three, her career path was obvious.

Every musician has their influences. Every person has their inspirations. Miss Greenan’s biggest inspirations are her dad, for his wisdom, her friend Jerrel, for his dedication to his music, and Billie Eilish. She said, “I think that what she [Billie Eilish] does for women in the music industry is very impressive and her stance on the earth, body image, amongst other things are very important for young people to hear.” 

In regards to musical style, her main influences are Billie Eilish, Amy Winehouse, and Norah Jones. She jokes that she never had any musical influence from her parents because “my family has no sense of pitch or rhythm.”    

If Miss Greenan could give any advice to aspiring musicians, it would be to observe, learn, and appreciate how others go about their craft. She said, “A lot of musicians think there’s only one way to go about tackling the music industry, but that isn’t true.  You have to appreciate how others learn their craft,  it may start with an instrument;  but there are plenty of people that start with a simple melody, an idea, a joke, a laptop. The more that you immerse yourself into the community, the more variety you’re going to get.”