November 25, 2024
The Rothko Chapel’s Board of Directors announced today that it had accepted the resignation of David Leslie, who has been the Chapel’s Executive Director since March 2015. Leslie, who has led the Chapel through a period of extraordinary growth and change, is set to retire by the end of June 2025.
“We are so proud of the legacy that David has created,” says Troy Porter, Chair of the Rothko Chapel’s Board of Directors. “He is leaving the Chapel an even better institution than he inherited 10 years ago. Speaking for the entire Board, we are sad to see him go, but wish him only the very best as he moves into this next phase of his life.”
Leslie joined the Chapel in March 2015 after having served for 18 years as Executive Director of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon. He has had a career devoted to human rights, interfaith relations, immigration reform, ending homelessness, and addressing the societal impacts of climate change.
During his tenure at the Rothko Chapel, Leslie expanded the Chapel’s programming at the intersection of human rights, civil rights, social and environmental justice, and spirituality. Notably, he furthered community engagement with, and access to, the Chapel, especially expanding online programming during the global pandemic that created a virtual space for people to find community and connection in a time of uncertainty and hardship. He has helped conduct the most ambitious and transformational capital effort the Chapel has undertaken – the
$43-million Opening Spaces campus development project, which included the most comprehensive and sensitive restoration of the Rothko Chapel in its history. He has also stewarded the Chapel through its closure due to Hurricane Beryl earlier this year. Leslie has worked with the Board to lay the groundwork for the new Institute of Spirituality and Social Justice, which will guide the identity for the Chapel’s programming into the future and further the Chapel’s commitment to interdisciplinary engagement in support of change leaders working for a more equitable and just society.
"To be a steward of this transformative spiritual and cultural institution, and to further the de Menils’ legacy of social justice, has been the honor of a lifetime,” says Leslie. “I know that the Chapel’s next leader will continue to expand our mission of both contemplation and action at the intersection of art, spirituality, and human rights.”
Christopher Rothko, son of Mark Rothko and former Chair of the Rothko Chapel’s Board of Directors, says, “David has steered the Chapel through a remarkable period of change and growth, including helping the Chapel through a global pandemic and guiding the largest capital project in our history, with both a steady hand and a sense of possibility about the kind of place the Chapel could be for future generations.”
The Board of Directors is starting a national search process to help identify Leslie’s successor.