Building a Brighter Future Awardee
The inaugural Building a Brighter Future Award recognizes those that are doing great work in the Brooklyn community and creating pathways to educational and the overall advancement of our community.
Leslie-Bernard Joseph
Leslie-Bernard Joseph is the Chief Executive Officer at Coney Island Prep. He works to lead all schools and the central office team, ensuring that CIP continues to deliver on its ambitious mission and commitment to our scholars, family, and community. The mission of Coney Island Prep is to enable students to develop the academic skills and character necessary for success in selective colleges and universities, and the career of their choice. Students will realize success through a rigorous academic program in a supportive and structured school community.
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Queens, Leslie attended New York City public schools through eighth grade before receiving a scholarship to attend boarding school in Massachusetts through Prep for Prep.
He received his bachelor's degree in Politics and African-American Studies from Princeton, where he served as both student body and Black Student Union president. He holds a law degree, with distinction, from Stanford Law School and a master's degree from Stanford Graduate School of Education. While at Stanford, Leslie was a 2013 Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow.
Leslie has worked as an associate at the law firm, Skadden Arps; as an associate at the management consulting firm, McKinsey & Company; and as a managing director at the Harlem Children's Zone where he led a portfolio of 8 programs serving approximately 4,400 students across HCZ's K-12 pipeline. He is also a former trustee of Prep for Prep.
He began his career teaching fifth grade in the Bronx through Teach For America, before joining the founding team at Coney Island Prep as the school's first Dean of Students in 2009.