Michael Lesher

Michael Lesher (Col ’80, Grad ’82) received the 2010 Pro Humanitate Literary Award from the Center for Child Welfare Policy of the North American Resource Center for Child Welfare. The award is conferred annually to authors from the U.S. and Canada whose articles best “exemplify the intellectual integrity and moral courage required to transcend political and social barriers to champion best practice in the field of child welfare.” Mr. Lesher co-authored A single-case of Rabbinic sexual abuse in the Orthodox Jewish Community, an article in the Journal of Child Sexual Abuse. Mr. Lesher is an author, columnist, investigative reporter, lawyer and legal editor who has published in the peer reviewed literature and in the popular press on the many facets of child sex abuse and institutional cover ups. He serves as a child advocate and has appeared on ABC Nightline and ABC Eyewitness News. He has been quoted in the New York Times, Associated Press, New York Newsday, New York Jewish Week and Forward. He has also argued these issues before the Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit.