Lee Pelton is the twelfth president of Emerson College in Boston and a nationally and internationally known speaker and writer on the value of a liberal education and the importance of leadership development, civic engagement and diversity in higher education. Dr. Pelton began his academic career at Harvard University, where he earned his Ph.D. in English Literature with an academic focus on 19th-century British prose and poetry. He taught English and American literature at Harvard and served as senior tutor at Winthrop House. He later served on the Harvard Board of Overseers and as a vice-chair of its executive committee. After Harvard, Dr. Pelton served as dean of the college at Colgate University and Dartmouth College. Dr. Pelton came to Emerson on July 1, 2011 after serving for thirteen years as the president of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon.