New Executive Director

Lee Pesky Learning Center Names New Executive Director to Lead Organization's Growth

BOISE, Idaho –Lee Pesky Learning Center’s (LPLC) board of directors has named David Holmes to serve as the organization’s executive director. Holmes currently serves as vice president for programs at the Vermont-based Foundation for Excellent Schools. The foundation works with schools in low-income communities across the country to enable students to take “one more step” toward educational success. Holmes will manage the growth of LPLC as the organization reaches more places in the state with two new locations in Caldwell and Hailey.

Prior to his work at the foundation, Holmes served as headmaster for Suffield Academy, an independent day/boarding school in Connecticut. During his 13-year tenure Holmes increased enrollment by 35%, quadrupled capital and annual fundraising and led several innovative steps, including becoming the first high school in the nation to place a laptop computer with every student. Holmes’ extensive experience in education and institutional advancement, coupled with a PhD (with research focusing on learning styles) makes him an ideal leader for the future direction of LPLC.

LPLC Chair Alan Pesky said the center’s board unanimously selected Holmes based on his extensive and well-rounded experience in education, as well as his strong leadership and personal qualities. “David Holmes follows the extraordinary leadership of Blossom Turk, our first executive director, and Hildegarde Ayer, our current executive director,” says Pesky. “I am confident under David’s leadership the center will continue to grow and reach out to children and adults in Idaho who learn differently.”

Holmes, will assume his new duties on August 1.

“The center plays a unique role in Idaho in helping learners overcome obstacles to becoming successful in school and life,” Holmes said. “It is a privilege to join Alan and Wendy Pesky, the center’s outstanding staff and its many supporters in advancing the center’s mission in the years ahead.”

The center’s board of directors began a nationwide search last fall after Ayer announced her retirement as the center’s executive director effective October 2006. Holmes will work with Ayer during a short transition period.

About Lee Pesky Learning Center

Founded by Ketchum residents Alan and Wendy Pesky as a memorial to their son, Lee Pesky Learning Center provides services to children and adults with learning disabilities in the Treasure Valley (at its Boise Campus and Albertson College of Idaho Campus in Caldwell) and at the Janet Shafran Campus in the Wood River Valley. It is estimated at least one in five individuals suffer from some type of learning disability. The center also works with teachers across the state to improve student achievement as well as collaborates with various organizations to address literacy needs in Idaho.

####

Home