Marianne Lucas Lescher, Ph.D. 

Kyrene Traditional Academy
Kyrene School District
Chandler, Arizona
mlesch@kyrene.org

Marianne Lucas Lescher, Ph.D., has led K-8 Kyrene Traditional Academy for the last 13 years of her 25-year career as principal. Lescher’s leadership at Kyrene Academy has been transformative in multiple ways. In 2011, she led the school’s transition from an elementary institution to a traditional model K-8 school. She spearheaded the development of a transformed and expanded campus, which includes a custom middle school STEM Lab that grew out of the school’s COVID-era practice of using re-packaged materials and easy-to-implement at-home lessons to fill the in-person learning gap. The school has since been named a STEM Focus School of the Future by Northern Arizona University and has implemented an array of programs and spaces to cultivate wellness at the whole-school level, including Calming Corners and Sensory Rooms for students, and a Zen Room for teachers and staff. Lescher has earned numerous awards, with two of her schools named Arizona A+ School of Excellence on six occasions. In just her third year as principal, Kyrene Academy was the first in the district to earn recognition as a National Blue Ribbon School for closing the achievement gap. Lescher previously served as an assistant principal and curriculum director and was a special education teacher for 13 years. She holds a Ph.D. from Boston College, where she also earned her B.A., and an M.Ed. from the University of Massachusetts, Boston.