Educational
Trailblazer
LEROY NUNERY ’77 IS PRESIDENT
OF EDISON CHARTER SCHOOLS.
BY RON DEVLIN | PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID W. COULTER
Leroy D. Nunery II ’77 was taught respect for education from his earliest days. His mother taught in
Jersey City schools, and though his father didn’t go to college, he
held an enduring belief that education was the key to success.
“It was never a question of whether I would go to college,”
Nunery says, “only where.”
Citing the quality of professors like Bob Weiner, Jones Professor
of History, and Richard Sharpless, professor emeritus of history,
Nunery chose Lafayette over Princeton.
“Bob Weiner, my main adviser, shaped the way I think,” he says. “He taught me not just to look at an event, but to ask why it came about.”
After a career in business, Nunery finds himself on the cutting edge
of a new chapter in American education. As president of Edison Schools’ charter school division, he oversees 25 schools around the country.
Because it is a private, for-profit venture in a realm traditionally considered public, Edison and other companies have sparked controversy in educational circles.
“We’re squarely in the bullseye of educational reform,” says Nunery. “When you look at what voters are paying for in education and America’s position in the global economy, there has to be an alternative to the traditional public school.”
A history graduate, Nunery earned an MBA from Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis and a doctorate in
higher education management from Penn. His career included a position as managing director of Global Corporate Investment Bank and senior client manager for BankAmerica Securities LLC.
At the NBA, he was vice president for business development and human relations, and played a key role in extending the association’s brand and planning NBA University. Prior to his current position,
he was Penn’s vice president for business services, overseeing 600 employees and a $200 million budget.
He served on the board of Pitney Bowes Inc. and is chairman of the board of the West Philadelphia Partnership, a cultural and economic development group.
Nunery was a Lafayette trustee from 1989-98. The Leroy D. Nunery ’77 Intellectual Citizenship Award is given annually to a student whose scholarship advances knowledge on important social, political, or economic issues in a multicultural community and who demonstrates outstanding perseverance, concern, and perspective in pursuing research interests. Recipients also develop programs that benefit others.
Having a prestigious award bearing his name, Nunery says, pushes
him to maintain the values for which it stands.
“It’s important that colleges find as many ways as possible to get and keep students and alumni connected,” said Nunery, a Lafayette internship host. “We need an informal and casual interchange.”
In positions like president of the Black MBA Association, Nunery
has sought to expand educational opportunities of minorities. At Lafayette, he notes, there has been an improvement in the level of minority dialogue and access with alumni compared to when he was
a student 30 years ago.
He looks back fondly on memories of playing rugby and intramural sports, studying karate, and working at the college radio station.
“I tried to do as much as I could,” he says.
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