Currently, Leslie oversees the “Living the Dream” thought leadership program on behalf of United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley (United Way). Over the last year, Leslie helped United Way execute a series of community dialogues exploring the state of the American Dream in Greater Boston, including developing the direction of each panel, identifying and enlisting panelists, and hosting pre-panel discussions to further shape the discussion. Leslie also manages the agency’s work with Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates & Atrius Health, the Visiting Nurse Association of Boston, and other mission and health-related engagements.

Leslie has worked with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Community Partnership for Older Adults, which works to build capacity at the local level to help older Americans age in the community. The program consisted of strategic messaging and national media relations. She has also worked with Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), the country’s largest community development support corporation, providing strategic counsel and media relations support to the president’s office and CEOs for Cities, the national urban policy membership organization, raising visibility of its agenda to innovate successful cities. In addition to community development and urban policy, Leslie focuses on education and after-school issues. She directed accounts for TERC, an international education research organization that serves school districts in communities across the country, and the RWJF After-School Project, providing media relations and communications counsel as well as overseeing the creative development of TERC’s strategic messaging and the After-School Project’s collateral materials. 

A published author and former law journal editor, Leslie has written law review articles on civil rights issues and organized a national symposium on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). She graduated with honors from The Ohio State University College of Law. Leslie currently serves on the board of the Fenway Community Development Corporation in Boston.