Leslye Miller Fraser has over 35 years of leadership experience both professionally and within the community. She currently serves as a member of the MIT Corporation, which is the Board of Directors and governing body of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and is the National STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) Chair for The Links, Incorporated, a 74-year old non-profit African American women’s community service organization. As STEM Chair, Leslye led Link chapters across the country in establishing in less than four years over 100 National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Chapters for African-American students in grades 3-12 in underserved communities to expose them to STEM fields – one-third of all NSBE Jr. Chapters worldwide. Leslye also is the immediate past National President of the African American Federal Executive Association (AAFEA), which is the leading non-profit organization dedicated to preparing and supporting African Americans for advancement into and within the senior ranks of the United States Government.
In February 2016, with 21 years of federal service – including 15 years as a member of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and 11 years in the private sector – Leslye retired from her position as an Environmental Appeals Judge on the Environmental Appeals Board at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the first person of color to serve in that role. Her previous positions include Associate General Counsel for Pesticides and Toxic Substances in EPA’s Office of General Counsel (SES) and Director of the Office of Regulations, Policy and Social Sciences at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (SES); labor and environmental attorney at a leading international law firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher; and research engineer and manager at TRW, an aerospace company later acquired by Northrop Grumman Corporation.
Leslye received Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in chemical engineering from MIT, and a Juris Doctor degree, Order of the Coif, from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law. She has received numerous awards and honors, including a U.S. patent for a material she co-invented for spacecraft hydraulic systems; the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary’s Award for Distinguished Service (2003); the Meritorious Presidential Rank Award (2006); the AAFEA Ebenezer Bassett Distinguished SES Award (2006); EPA’s Vivian Malone Jones Legacy Award (2015); and NSBE’s Lifetime Member of the Year Award (2018).
Leslye is a life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. (AKA); BAMIT (Black Alumni of MIT); NSBE; the NAACP; the Senior Executive Association; former regional co-chair of the MIT Educational Council of Washington, DC; past President of both the Potomac (VA) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated and the Montgomery County, MD Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc.; and a charter member of both the NSBE Chapter at MIT and the Lambda Upsilon Chapter of AKA at MIT, the first sorority on MIT’s campus. She also is the first female chair (2006-2010) of the Deacons Ministry at Zion Baptist Church in Washington, DC, a historical church founded in 1864. She is married to her college beau, Darryl Fraser, and they have two adult children.