Leslie believes deeply that community-driven policy change is a critical lever for education transformation. She currently serves as the first Director of Policy at Transcend, where she leads the organization’s efforts to elevate the voices and insights of school communities directly to policy leaders so that policy can better support effective and enduring innovation in schools.

Before joining Transcend in 2023, Leslie spent almost a decade leading policy and advocacy work to improve K-12 education and youth outcomes as the Vice President for Education Initiatives at the Colorado Children’s Campaign. Leslie began her career teaching sixth-grade math and earth science at Bethune Middle School in Los Angeles, where she also worked on Teach For America’s national alumni team. She returned to her home state of Colorado to work in the state legislature, where she managed coalition work for legislation such as Colorado’s READ Act and developed and directed the first three years of the Urban Leaders Fellowship, a policy fellowship that has since expanded to 10 regions with more than 900 alumni. Leslie also worked at the Keystone Policy Center, where she initiated and facilitated the first education-focused stakeholder engagement work that Keystone had ever done. Leslie lives in Denver with her partner, daughters Maya and Lucia, and pup Pepper.