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 CollegeinHanover, 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]
In 2019, it reopened the 1,035-bed, 14-story Little Building building, which features 11 floors of student residences; black box cabaret theaters, dance practice rooms in the basement-level; a modern student mail center and street accessible retail spaces on the first floor; and classrooms and conference center-style spaces on the second floor.[17][18] During the building’s renovation, the College also initiated a digitally projected public art display – the Uncommon Project – on the face of the building.[19]
Opened a new 18,000 square foot, 550-seat dining hall [20]
Opened a new residence hall at 2 Boylston Place, featuring 18 stories and 375 beds [21]
Purchased 172 Tremont Street to house student life and services [22]
Began the expansion of the sidewalk along Boylston Street in front of the recently renovated Little Building and created new retail food eatery spaces on Little Building street level.[23]
Created a new student dining facility, the Lion’s Den [24]
Opened a new Visitor Center at 104 Boylston Street [25]
