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). On June 1, 2021, Pelton took the helm at the Boston Foundation.
M. Lee Pelton was born on September 27, 1950, to Clarence and Rosa Lee Pelton. He has three sisters and was raised in Wichita, Kansas, where he completed his secondary education at Wichita North High School. His father initially worked as a laborer and later became a manager within the Wichita Police Department, while his mother was a homemaker. Pelton graduated in 1974 from Wichita State University with a degree in English and psychology, earning magna cum laude honors with a concentration in 19th-century British literature. He subsequently completed a Ph.D. in English and American literature at Harvard University in 1984.
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, he became senior tutor of Winthrop House, one of Harvard's undergraduate colleges. 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. Pelton left Colgate in 1991, when he was named dean of Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire. While at Dartmouth he was responsible for the largest administrative body of the school, and held an academic appointment in the Department of English.
In July 1998, Pelton was appointed as the 22nd president of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, the first university in the western United States. He expanded the faculty with 26 new tenured-track professorships and increased minority enrollment to 24 percent, up from 11 percent when he started. 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. At the end of the 2010 academic year Pelton left to take the same position at Emerson College in Massachusetts, replaced at Willamette by Stephen E. Thorsett.
Under PeltonâÂÂs 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.
During PeltonâÂÂs 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.
Emerson College played a leading role in the revival of BostonâÂÂs 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 EmersonâÂÂs role in the revival of that section of the city. The theatre is now managed in partnership with Ambassador Theatre Group (ATG).
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.
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 EmersonâÂÂs Boston campus.
Finalized in July 2020, the alliance moved MarlboroâÂÂs academic program, known for its self-directed nature, to Emerson and renamed EmersonâÂÂs 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.
Emerson College has acquired or redeveloped several buildings to expand the institutionâÂÂs footprint as outlined in Pelton's vision.
On December 1, 2020, Dr. Pelton announced his resignation as president of Emerson College to students and staff via email.
On June 1, 2021, Pelton joined the Boston Foundation as President and CEO.
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. 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. 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.