Lee Pelton believes that nurturing the humanistic spirit goes hand in hand with confronting and trying to solve urgent moral and social problems. This belief has fueled his lifelong commitment to educational excellence and social justice and influenced his long career in academia, his lifelong service as a civic leader, and, most recently, his leadership of The Boston Foundation. 

In 2021, Pelton was named president and CEO of The Boston Foundation, one of the country’s first and most influential community foundations. Pelton has positioned the organization as an agent for social change by centering equity in its programs, grantmaking, and civic leadership. The foundation’s defining ambition is to achieve equity, which first involves acknowledging and then seeking to eliminate the structural and underlying causes of outcome disparities for historically marginalized communities.

Before joining The Boston Foundation, Pelton spent his career in academia, as president of Willamette University and of Emerson College. While at Emerson, he emerged as a regional and national voice on social issues. His essay “America is on Fire” was read by more than 6 million people and was ranked by Forbes as one of the five most noteworthy writings that appeared after George Floyd was murdered.

He has been awarded three honorary degrees and several awards and recognitions for educational excellence and social justice. In 2024, he became an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was awarded the Harvard Medal. He was named a Living Legend by the Boston Museum of African American History in 2021, was inducted into the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Academy of Distinguished Bostonians in 2020, received the Governor’s Award from Mass Humanities in 2020, and made multiple appearances on the “Most Influential” and “Most Powerful” rankings at Boston Magazine and the Boston Business Journal.