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Our Board
The current LSF Board of Directors is composed of eleven board members, including two Lenfest family members, who provide valuable contributions to the community.
Dr. Martha Denney
Executive Director
Andy Dessel
Scholar Alum Board Member
Born and raised in South Central Pennsylvania, Andy has had a lifelong commitment to service and education. He currently serves as the Health Innovations Manager with the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank where he oversees strategy, partnership development, and programming efforts. Previously, he served with the Pennsylvania Governor’s Office of Citizen Service as Program Officer helping to strengthen and develop the national service network in Pennsylvania. Andy has served as an AmeriCorps VISTA member and serves on several nonprofit organization boards including as the Vice Chair of the Board of the United Way of Pennsylvania and Logistics Chair of the Harrisburg Walk to End Alzheimer's. Andy is a proud Lenfest alumnus with undergraduate and graduate degrees from Penn State University. Andy is also currently pursuing a Doctorate in Organizational Leadership and is excited to continue serving the Lenfest community.
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Bob Freund
Board Member
Bob Freund has been an educator his entire professional life – a high school math teacher, a school counselor, a varsity basketball coach, and later the Director of the Pennsylvania College Advising Corps. While a public school counselor, he became concerned about the plight of first-generation college-going students and the rising costs of post-secondary education. In 2008, Bob established the Pennsylvania College Advising Corps (PCAC), a consortium of Dickinson College, Franklin & Marshall College, Gettysburg College, and Millersville University. This initiative is a non-profit organization that trains and places recent college graduates in underserved high schools to serve as full-time college advisers. When Bob retired in April 2021, the program had grown from 8 to 33 advisers serving 35 schools and thousands of students from rural Pennsylvania to Philadelphia. Bob is honored and excited to serve on the Board of the Lenfest Scholars Foundation.
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ERIC FUrDA
Board Member
Eric J. Furda, a former scholarship selection committee member for The Lenfest Foundation, is the Senior Associate Director of College Counseling at William Penn Charter School in Philadelphia. Prior to this role, he was the dean of admissions at the University of Pennsylvania for thirteen years. He also held senior leadership positions at Columbia University in the City of New York as the executive director of Admissions (1995-2004) and vice president of alumni relations (2004-2008). Eric has led multiple committees for the Ivy League and the Consortium on Financing Higher Education and was chair of the board for The Common Application. Eric co-hosts a monthly show on college selection, The Process, on SiriusXM Business Radio; co-taught a Coursera MOOC, How to Apply to College; and is the co-author of The College Conversation with a fellow board member Jacques Steinberg. Eric received the A. Philip Randolph Award for Diversity and Inclusion from student leadership at the University of Pennsylvania for his work with The Posse Foundation in Miami, Florida. Eric earned his M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University, and his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a four-year letterman and captain of the Sprint Football team.
Ashley Green Gautam
Scholar Alum Board Member
Ashley Green Gautam is a 2007 graduate of Bermudian Springs High School. Education and cross-cultural understanding have been her passions from second grade to the present. Ashley earned her teaching certificate from Ursinus College and her master’s degree from the University of New England. She assisted in the creation of a remedial academic program at the NGO Equal Education during a semester abroad in Cape Town, South Africa, and was a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in New Delhi, India. Back in the States, Ashley taught various subjects in Secondary Social Studies for seven years before choosing to stay home with her two children. She is humbled and grateful to be able to give back to the Lenfest community by serving as a board member as she figures out her next professional steps.
Joseph Huber
Vice Chair of the Board
Joseph F. Huber is a Senior Advisor to Credit Suisse. He has managed Credit Suisse regional offices in Philadelphia and Chicago and served as an advisor to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Mr. Huber was also Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse First Boston Investment Management. Mr. Huber serves on the boards of Upgrade, Inc. (a San Francisco fintech company), Foster Investment Company, Lenfest Scholars Foundation, Lenfest Foundation, Mercersburg Academy, and Indian River Land Trust. Prior board positions have included Vanguard Charitable, Vanguard Canada IRC, Independence Seaport Museum (Emeritus), Mannington Mills, Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and Lower Merion Pension Board. Joseph has been a board member of the Lenfest Foundation from the start of both the Prep School and College Scholarship Programs.
ROger Lehecka
Chair of the Board
Roger Lehecka attended New York City public schools before entering Columbia College. He has a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education as well as an A.B. and M.Phil from Columbia University. Before retiring from a long career at Columbia University at the end of 2004, he was Dean of Students for 19 years and the founder of Columbia's Upward Bound Program in 1965, among other positions. His experience with Upward Bound taught him much about the ways access to college is not equally available to all talented youngsters. From there he led a career in higher education that always focused on expanding opportunity for those previously excluded from a college education. Mr. Lehecka has helped low-income students from New York City, rural Pennsylvania, and both coasts of Florida get admitted to good colleges and find the financial aid to attend. He continues to advise them throughout college, wherever they enroll, and help them through the difficult times most students face. He was Chair of the Double Discovery Center Board of Friends from 2019-22 and is currently Chair of the Board of the Lenfest Scholars Foundation.
Marguerite Lenfest
President of the Board
Diane Myer
Treasurer of the Board
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Laura Perna
Board Member
Laura Perna, PhD is GSE Centennial Presidential Professor of Education and Vice Provost for Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania. Her scholarship focuses on how to ensure that all people, regardless of demographic characteristics and place of residence, have the opportunity to participate in and benefit from high-quality higher education. Founding Executive Director of the Alliance for Higher Education and Democracy (Penn AHEAD), of particular interest is identifying policies and practices of K-12 schools, colleges and universities, and federal and state governments that contribute to, and address, systemic barriers to higher education. Other strands of research examine how to connect education research to public policy and sources of observed inequity in faculty salary, rank, and tenure. She is author/co-author of more than 200 publications and delivered more than 300 speeches, keynote addresses, and presentations, including invited testimony to Congress. Dr. Perna is the editor of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, has served as President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education and Vice President of the Postsecondary Division of the American Educational Research Association, and is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association and member of the National Academy of Education. She also serves on the board of directors for the Postsecondary Network Policy Institute (PNPI) and the advisory board for Bowdoin College’s THRIVE program.
Jacques Steinberg
Board Member
Jacques Steinberg is a New York Times best-selling author and longtime, award-winning Times journalist. His knowledge of -- and passion for -- college access, equity, affordability, readiness, and attainment has more recently led to roles as a senior leader, strategist, adviser, and board member for national nonprofit organizations. From 2013 to 2020, Jacques served as Senior Vice President of Higher Education and Communications of Say Yes to Education, a leading, national nonprofit organization that helps revitalize communities by giving students access to college and other postsecondary opportunities as well as supports to ensure their success. Before joining Say Yes, Jacques was a journalist at The Times for 25 years, including as its Senior Editor for Education Initiatives. He is a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Association for College Admission Counseling and has been a member of the Lenfest board since fall 2020.
His latest book, co-authored with Eric J. Furda, the former Dean of Admissions of the University of Pennsylvania, is The College Conversation: A Practical Companion for Parents to Guide Their Children Along the Path to Higher Education (Penguin Random House, 2020). Jacques is also the author of The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College (Viking, 2002), a New York Times Book Review Notable Book selection now in its 28th printing.
Larry Thi
Board Secretary
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Mozelle Thompson, Esq.
Board Member
Mozelle W. Thompson is CEO of Thompson Strategic Consulting where he has provided legal, policy, and business advice to innovative companies like Facebook, Samsung, Disney, and many startups. Thompson’s extensive public and private sector experience has allowed him to become a guest on news outlets like CNBC and CNN where he speaks about economic, regulatory, and technology issues. Thompson served as a Commissioner on the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and served as Chairman of the OECD Committee on Consumer Policy. Prior to the FTC, Thompson served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and as Acting Executive Director, Secretary, and General Counsel of the New York State Housing Finance Agency. Thompson is a graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School, and he received his MPA from Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs. He has taught at Fordham, Princeton, and Stanford universities.
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