Lauren Lek, Ed.D. serves as the Head of School at the oldest and only all girls’ high school in San Diego, the Academy of Our Lady of Peace (OLP). She graduated from UC San Diego with a B.A. in Literature, St. Mary’s College with an M.A. in Educational Leadership and her Doctorate in Educational Technology Leadership from Pepperdine University.
She has won many local awards in her short time here in San Diego, including the Athena Pinnacle Educator of the Year award for 2016, Women Who Mean Business, and 40 under 40 awards by SD Metro Magazine. Lauren is a member of the Downtown Rotary 33 and serves on the STEM Committee with several Rotarians to bring opportunities in learning to the lower-socioeconomic schools.
In just four years at OLP, Lauren has helped to create a coordinated STEM Certificate program, launched a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program, added Engineering Design, AP Computer Science, Bio-Technology, Theater Design, Entrepreneurship, Orchestra, and Architecture.
As an advocate for women in leadership, Lauren has also helped create at OLP a hub for successful women to share their journey with the 750 students. In its third year, the OLP Women’s Symposium attracts 25 of the top women leaders to inspire the next generation, and welcomes over 250 community members.
According to Lauren, there are only 34 women governors compared to 2319 men governors in the U.S. It seems 89 countries have more women in legislative roles compared to the U.S. And finally, she added that in our own world of Rotary there are only 27-33% that are women. She indicated that the track record at OLP is that 100% of the students go on to a 2 or 4-year college for higher studies.
Lauren married her college sweetheart and they have three beautiful children, Lucas is 8, Willem is 4 and Emma just turned 2.
Dr. Lek had the student partnership of Sanjana Paye, a junior, who focused on the impact of all girls education as the vehicle for inspiring interest in STEM. Sanjana is quite a remarkable young lady who as a junior is top in her class with a 4.63 GPA. Ms. Paye has the experiential lens of witnessing the transformative power of an all girls' education and its impact on her own development and interest in STEM. Sanjana intends to pursue higher ed. in the study of neurological sciences. In addition to the top level math courses in which she is currently enrolled, Ms. Paye is now taking her first computer programing class with intention of understanding better the machines necessary for academic and professional engagement.
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