A message from new PDK CEO Jeanie Lee

I want to offer a warm greeting to the PDK International community. I am deeply grateful for the opportunity to serve as chief executive of an organization with a long and trusted legacy in the education profession. I am thankful to the PDK Board of Directors for the confidence they have placed in me to help lead this organization into its next chapter.

As I step into the role of CEO, my priority is listening, learning, and gathering insights from those closest to our work. That includes the PDK team, our board, external partners, members, teacher leaders, and most importantly, our network of young people across the country. This moment invites us to build on PDK’s legacy and extend it forward, recognizing how learning, work, and the economy are changing. Aligning what has always made this organization strong with the innovation that educators and young people are now calling for is what’s ahead. Together.

I began my career in the classroom in Los Angeles, and I will always be an educator first. Over two decades, my work has focused on rethinking learning experiences and pathways so young people can build agency, purpose, and real opportunities to thrive. Across nonprofit leadership, the public sector, and philanthropy, one question has guided me: How do we create durable systems that expand possibility, connect learning to purpose, and remove barriers that stand between students and their goals?

Educators play an essential civic role in our communities, shaping how young people learn, belong, and contribute. PDK has long been grounded in that belief, centering the profession as both a public service and natural avenue for leadership. I am deeply honored to steward this work and to help create a place in the profession for the next generation of students who choose it.

PDK is a community and a platform for what the education profession can become. As we look ahead, my first charge is this: Stay engaged, share your perspective, and be part of the process that will shape our next chapter together.

This article appears in the Spring 2026 issue of Kappan, Vol. 107, No. 5-6, p. 75.