Our Leadership

Lesko serves as Chief Executive Officer at United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and is grateful for the opportunity to improve lives and strengthen communities every day.

Marci joined United Way in 2006 and has become integral to the executive leadership team, having previously served as the organization’s Vice President of Community Impact, Executive Vice President, Chief Impact Officer and Corporate Secretary. She was appointed COO by the Board of Directors in 2023 and assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer in June 2024.

With a graduate degree in organization leadership and an outstanding track record of turning donor investments into lasting results, Marci has transformed key areas of the organization including impact, grants, data, communications, human resources and technology. She has been a national leader in Collective Impact, which she brought to the region in the early 2010s; she started the highly successful and nationally recognized Community Schools model in the Lehigh Valley, and she developed the results-based investment strategy United Way continues to follow today.

In addition to being a proud member of United Way Tocqueville Society and long-time member of United Way Women United, Lesko serves on several boards and is affiliated with many community improvement efforts such as the Lehigh County Suicide Prevention Coalition, as Board Chair for Pennsylvania’s Family Support Alliance, as Chair of LINC, as Board Chair of Enduring Keys, Inc., and as a committee chair of the Concourse Club of Palmerton.

Lesko has won several distinguished awards for her work, including the Human Relations Commission (2005), The Donley Award for Children’s Advocacy (2016), Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania Take the Lead Award (2017), Community Achievement Award/Woman of Influence Award from Lehigh Valley Business (2018), the PBS39 Fred Rogers Good Neighbor Award (2018) and led United Way to receive the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center Community Leadership Award (2021).

Lesko holds a Bachelor of Science in community health education from Illinois State University (1999) and a Master of Professional Services in organization development and change management from Pennsylvania State University (2022).