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]
Marlboro College was a private college in Marlboro, Vermont. Founded in 1946, it remained intentionally small, operating as a self-governing community with students following self-designed degree plans culminating in a thesis. In 1998, the college added a graduate school.
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 Oregon is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the university also has the Ballmer Institute for Children's Behavioral Health in Portland; the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston; and Pine Mountain Observatory in Central Oregon.
Harvard Yard, is the oldest and among the most prominent parts of the campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The yard has a historic center and modern crossroads and contains most of the freshman dormitories, Harvard's most important libraries, Memorial Church, several classroom and departmental buildings, and the offices of senior university officials, including the President of Harvard University.
Emerson College is a private college with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts. It also maintains campuses in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, and in 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.
Willamette University is a private liberal arts college with locations in Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United States. Originally named the Oregon Institute, the school was an unaffiliated outgrowth of the Methodist Mission. The name was changed to Wallamet University in 1852, followed by the current spelling in 1870. Willamette founded the first medical school and law school in the Pacific Northwest in the second half of the 19th century.
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.
Fenway–Kenmore is an officially recognized neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It is considered one neighborhood for administrative purposes, but it is composed of numerous distinct sections that are almost always referred to as "Fenway", "the Fenway", "Kenmore Square", or "Kenmore". Furthermore, the Fenway neighborhood is divided into two sub-neighborhoods commonly referred to as East Fenway/Symphony and West Fenway.
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.
The Colonial Theatre in Boston, Massachusetts, opened in 1900, is the oldest continually-operating theatre in the city. It is located at 106 Boylston Street on Boston Common at the former site of the Boston Public Library. It is a pending Boston Landmark.
The Berkeley Beacon is the student newspaper of Emerson College, founded in 1947. The paper is published weekly on Thursdays during the fall and spring semesters of Emerson's academic year.
Huntington Avenue is a thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, beginning at Copley Square and continuing west through the Back Bay, Fenway, Longwood, and Mission Hill neighborhoods. It is signed as Massachusetts Route 9. A section of Huntington Avenue has been officially designated the Avenue of the Arts by the city of Boston.
Cleveland High School (CHS) is a public high school in inner southeast Portland, Oregon, United States. It is part of the Portland Public Schools district. Its attendance boundary covers much of the western part of Southeast Portland, as well as parts of the North and Northeast sextants of the city..
The Boston Architectural College (BAC) 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.
Boylston Street is a major east–west thoroughfare in the city of Boston, Massachusetts and its western suburbs. The street begins in Boston's Chinatown neighborhood, forms the southern border of the Boston Public Garden and Boston Common, runs through Back Bay and Boston's Fenway neighborhood, merges into Brookline Ave and then Washington Street, emerging again contiguous with Route 9 out to where it crosses Route 128, after which it becomes Worcester Street.
Waller Hall is a building on the campus of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, in the United States. Opened in 1867 as University Hall, it is the oldest higher-education building west of the Mississippi River still in use, currently housing the university's administrative offices.
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.
The Oregon Civic Justice Center is a three-story former library building on the campus of Willamette University in downtown Salem, Oregon, United States. Built in 1912 as a Carnegie library for the city of Salem, the building now houses several programs of Willamette University College of Law. Prior to the law school's moving into the facility in 2008, the building was used by the adjacent Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) from 1971 to 2006.
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.
Jay M. Bernhardt is an American public health specialist and academic. Bernhardt has served as the president of Emerson College since June 2023. He was previously the dean of the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin from 2016 to 2023.