Biography

Dr. Leslie T. Fenwick, PhD, is a nationally-known education policy and leadership studies scholar who served as Dean of the Howard University School of Education for nearly a decade. A former Visiting Scholar and Visiting Fellow at Harvard University, Fenwick holds an invited appointment as a MCLC Senior Fellow at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point where she occasionally lectures about character leadership and ethics. Additionally, Fenwick served as an appointed member of the National Academy of Sciences committee that produced the first study about mayoral control of Washington DC Public Schools. Fenwick (who is a former urban school teacher and adminstrator) is regularly called upon to testify about educational equity and college access to the U.S. Senate, National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), U.S. Conference of Mayors, National Urban League, Congressional Black Caucus (CBC), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), Education Writers Association (EWA), National Education Association (NEA), National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education (NAFEO), Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), and the National Alliance of Black School Educators (NABSE). Additionally, she has been an invited speaker at the National Press Club,  the Washington Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights and Urban Affairs and the Washington Policy Seminar.

Dr. Fenwick is a contributor to the best-selling book, The Last Word: Controversy and Commentary in American Education. Her op-ed articles about education, the economy and urban development have appeared in the Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Education Week, The Huffington Post, and Diverse Issues in Higher Education. Her  forthcoming book, Jim Crow’s Pink Slip: Public Policy and the Near Decimation of Black Educational Leadership after Brown, has been cited by the New York Times and Education Week and the Center for American Progress has referenced her research. She is co-founder of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) Urban Superintendents Academy and a past member of the Harvard University Principals Center Advisory Board.

Dr. Fenwick is a tenured professor of educational policy and leadership at Howard University. She earned her PhD from The Ohio State University where she was a Flescher Fellow and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia. She has served on the AACTE board of directors and EduTopia advisory board. Additionally, she is an appointed member of the Scholarly Advisory Committee for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.