Patricia Harden, President

Bio coming soon.

Alvarez LeCesne, Executive Director

Mr. LeCesne brings a wealth of experience to ESP’s program. A former senior trial attorney for the United States Department of Justice, he has been a resident of Northern Virginia since 1977 and has been actively involved in the community. Most recently, he served as president of the Optimist Club of Reston and the chair of the Reston Community Coalition. Mr. LeCesne has served on many volunteer boards and in 1999 received the “Best of Reston” award for his outstanding service.

NEWS: In October 2005, Mr. LeCesne and his wife Brenda received the "Making A Difference" Award. This award is sponsored by the Fairfax County branch of the NAACP.

Ruth Heath, Director of Education

Mrs. Heath has been involved in education professionally for over 35 years. She attended the University of Southern California and was a member of the Los Angeles Unified School System. She then settled in Columbia, MD and retired from the Howard County Public School System three years ago.

Her experience in the public school arena has been evenly divided between teaching and administration and Mrs. Heath has taught all grade levels K-6. Each level provided lessons in uniqueness and promise. The years spent in administration afforded her the challenges and privileges of working with professionals to shape instruction and programs and to bring about changes and outcomes aimed toward specific goals.

In June of 2003, she and her husband moved to Virginia to be near family. She was a substitute teacher for the Loudoun County Public School System until joining Emerging Scholars Program in 2006.