Lester Lefton

Lester A. Lefton (born July 27, 1946) is an American academic and higher education administrator. He was the President of Kent State University (2006–2014). He has 35 years of experience in higher education, having served for 25 years at a public institution and nine at private institutions. During his career, he has been a psychology professor, dean and provost, as well as a psychology textbook author. Of Jewish heritage, Lefton was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, and completed his bachelor's in psychology from Northeastern University in Boston in 1969. He earned his doctorate in experimental psychology, specializing in visual perception and focusing on cognitive psychology in 1974 from the University of Rochester, where he held a U. S. Public Health Service Predoctoral Fellowship.

In 1972, he became an assistant professor at the University of South Carolina, associate professor in 1975, and full professor in 1980. Lefton served as chair of the psychology department (1986–1994) and dean of the College of Liberal Arts for three years (1994–1997). He moved to George Washington University in Washington, D. C., where he served as dean of the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences for four years (1997–2001). Lefton was senior vice president and provost of Tulane University for five years (2001–2006). Lefton has published dozens of peer refereed research articles. He has been a fellow of the American Psychological Association. He is known nationally as a passionate advocate for undergraduate education. An award winning teacher with 36 years of university teaching experience, Lefton's introductory psychology textbook, now in its ninth edition, is used in college classrooms nationwide.

Shortly after beginning his presidency, Lefton, working with city manager of Kent, Ohio, Dave Ruller, began an ongoing effort to redevelop the City Kent's, with the goal of drawing the city and the university closer and encouraging economic growth. Lefton and Ruller's $110 million mixed use development efforts have spurred new office, retail, entertainment and residential spaces, targeted to the 28,000 students and 3,000 faculty members from the university. The downtown redevelopment also includes new facility spaces for the university, including a $16 million, 80,000 square foot hotel and conference center, scheduled to open in June 2013. Additionally, a new multimodal transit facility, providing a transfer point for buses and visitors in the area, the Kent Central Gateway, is scheduled to be completed in July 2013. The redevelopment project is said to be the largest of its kind in Kent's 208 year history. Lefton has also influenced Kent State University's campus edge development, with plans to construct a cross campus pedestrian esplanade leading from campus to the center of the city of Kent. Plans are underway to construct a new $45 million College of Architecture and Environmental Design building along one section of the esplanade.

Lefton has come under scrutiny for his expense accounts charged to the university. Between July 2006 and July 2007 Lefton expensed $36,741.93 on entertainment and $44,249.34 on travel. In a Sep 26, 2007 editorial in the Akron Beacon Journal Lefton was criticized for extensive travel to Europe a portion of which was charged to the university, as well as hiring two additional vice presidents during a time when university tuition and fees increased for students.

Further controversy in 2007 included an agreement to pay $88,000 for a vice president to pursue a doctorate at Case Western Reserve University. This came at a time when the university was raising student tuition and was of further concern because the same degree could be earned at Kent State University.