Lee Pelton | |
---|---|
Born | September 27, 1950 |
Education | Wichita State University (BA) Harvard University (MA, PhD) |
M. Lee Pelton (born September 27, 1950) is the President and CEO of the Boston Foundation, the community foundation serving the Greater Boston area since 1915. A native of Wichita, Kansas, Pelton studied English literature at Wichita State University and Harvard University. He then held various deanship positions at Colgate University and Dartmouth College before becoming president of Willamette University (1998-2011) and Emerson College (2011-2021). [1] On June 1, 2021, Pelton took the helm at the Boston Foundation. [2]
M. Lee Pelton was born on September 27, 1950, to Clarence and Rosa Lee Pelton. He has three sisters. He grew up in Wichita, Kansas, where he graduated from Wichita North High School. [3] [4] His father worked as a laborer and later as a manager for the police department for the city of Wichita while his mother acted as a homemaker. [3] In 1974, Pelton graduated from Wichita State University. [5] There he earned a degree in English and psychology, while graduating magna cum laude with a focus in 19th century British literature. [5] He earned a doctorate in English and American literature from Harvard University in 1984. [6]
From 1974 to 1983, while working on his doctorate at Harvard, Pelton served as an instructor and teaching fellow in the English Department. After receiving his PhD in 1983, [5] he became senior tutor of Winthrop House, one of Harvard's undergraduate colleges. [5] He left Harvard in 1986, to become dean of students at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y. He served in that capacity until being named dean of the college in 1988. [6] Pelton left Colgate in 1991, when he was named dean of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. [7] While at Dartmouth he was responsible for the largest administrative body of the school, and held an academic appointment in the Department of English. [5]
In July 1998, Pelton was appointed as the 22nd president of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, the first university in the western United States. [5] He expanded the faculty with 26 new tenured-track professorships and increased minority enrollment to 24 percent, up from 11 percent when he started. [1] The school built two new buildings, Ford Hall and Kaneko Commons, and purchased several others adjacent to the campus in downtown Salem, and raised $131 million in a fund-raising campaign. [1] At the end of the 2010 academic year Pelton left to take the same position at Emerson College in Massachusetts, [1] replaced at Willamette by Stephen E. Thorsett. [8]
Under Pelton’s leadership since 2011, Emerson College adopted a strategic plan that outlines five guiding strategies for the institution: Academic Excellence, Civic Engagement, Internationalization and Global Engagement, Innovation, and Financial Strength. [9]
During Pelton’s tenure at Emerson, the College enhanced its Emerson Los Angeles program when it established a new physical presence in Hollywood in 2014 by opening a building for learning and living on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood. [10]
Emerson College played a leading role in the revival of Boston’s theatre district when it purchased and renovated two leading theatres; the Cutler Majestic Theatre and Paramount Center theatres. The purchase and recent renovation of the historic Emerson Colonial Theatre, which hosted the first performances of Porgy and Bess (1935) and Oklahoma! (1943), among other major productions, cemented Emerson’s role in the revival of that section of the city. The theatre is now managed in partnership with Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG). [11] [12]
In 2018, the College established its Global Portals program on several continents, opening doors for students from around the world to gain an Emerson College degree. [13]
An alliance with Marlboro College in Marlboro, VT, a private liberal arts college founded in 1946, was announced in November 2019, with the intention of keeping the legacy of the small liberal arts alive on Emerson’s Boston campus. [14]
Finalized in July 2020, the alliance moved Marlboro’s academic program, known for its self-directed nature, to Emerson and renamed Emerson’s liberal arts and interdisciplinary studies program to the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies. Existing Marlboro students were invited to matriculate and tenured and tenure-track faculty had the option to teach at Emerson. [15]
Emerson College has acquired or redeveloped several buildings to expand the institution’s footprint as outlined in Pelton's vision. [16]
On December 1, 2020, Dr. Pelton announced his resignation as president of Emerson College to students and staff via email. [27]
On June 1, 2021, Pelton joined the Boston Foundation as President and CEO. [2]
Pelton holds or has held positions on several educational and cultural boards and committees including the American Council on Education, the Harvard University Board of Overseers, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, the Oregon Symphony, Oregon Health & Science University Foundation, American Association for Higher Education, National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, and National Collegiate Athletic Association. [5] [6] He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, and on the Board of Trustees of public media pioneer GBH and the Barr Foundation, a philanthropic organization with more than $3 billion in assets. Pelton served on the board of directors of Portland General Electric, the local publicly traded electric utility. [28] He was married to Marlys Miller from 1974 to 1981, Kristen Wilson from 1981 to 2005, and to Carol (Leslie) Pelton, manager of the Oregon Cultural Trust from 2006 to 2008. He has three children. [29]
The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also Massachusetts' Library for the Commonwealth, meaning all adult residents of the state are entitled to borrowing and research privileges, and the library receives state funding. The Boston Public Library contains approximately 24 million items, making it the third-largest public library in the United States behind the federal Library of Congress and New York Public Library, which is also privately endowed. In 2014, the library held more than 10,000 programs, all free to the public, and lent 3.7 million materials.
The University of Massachusetts is the five-campus public university system and the only public research system in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes five campuses, a satellite campus in Springfield and also 25 campuses throughout California and Washington with the University of Massachusetts Global.
The University of Oregon is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the university also has a satellite campus in Portland; a marine station, called the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, in Charleston; and an observatory, called Pine Mountain Observatory, in Central Oregon.
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Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California and Well, Limburg, Netherlands. Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of oratory," the college offers more than three dozen degree and professional training programs specializing in the fields of arts and communication with a foundation in liberal arts studies. The college is one of the founding members of the ProArts Consortium, an association of six neighboring institutions in Boston dedicated to arts education at the collegiate level. Emerson is also notable for the college's namesake public opinion poll, Emerson College Polling.
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Copley Square, is a public square in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, bounded by Boylston Street, Clarendon Street, St. James Avenue, and Dartmouth Street. The square is named for painter John Singleton Copley. Prior to 1883 it was known as Art Square due to its many cultural institutions, some of which remain today.
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The Pacific Northwest College of Art (PNCA) is an art school of Willamette University and is located in Portland, Oregon. Established in 1909, the art school grants Bachelor of Fine Arts degrees and graduate degrees including the Master of Fine Arts (MFA) and Master of Arts (MA) degrees. It has an enrollment of about 500 students. The college merged with Willamette University in 2021.
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Boston Architectural College is a private college in Boston. It is New England's largest private college of spatial design. The college's main building is at 320 Newbury Street in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood.
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The Mark O. Hatfield Library is the main library at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, United States. Opened in 1986, it is a member of the Orbis Cascade Alliance along with several library lending networks, and is a designated Federal depository library. Willamette's original library was established in 1844, two years after the school was founded. The library was housed in Waller Hall before moving to its own building in 1938.
Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS) was a graduate school and seminary in Newton, Massachusetts, affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA and the United Church of Christ. It was the product of a merger between Andover Theological Seminary and Newton Theological Institution. In recent years, it was an official open and affirming seminary, meaning that it was open to students of same-sex attraction or transgender orientation and generally advocated for tolerance of it in church and society.
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George Whitaker was an American minister and university president in Texas and Oregon. A native of Massachusetts, he served as the president of Wiley College in Texas, along with Willamette University and Portland University in Oregon. A Methodist trained preacher and graduate of Wesleyan University, he also worked as a pastor across the country in the late 19th century, primarily in New England.