Policy with Purpose

Patricia Winters Levesque ’95MBA wasn’t planning a career in educational policy when she started working as an advisor in the Florida legislature in 1997. But it wasn’t long before her perspective—and career trajectory—shifted.

As letters and stories poured in from parents and students looking for help, she began to see how shifts in rules and regulations could lead to real outcomes.

Today, Levesque—who recently won Rollins’ Distinguished Alumni Award—has built a legacy that may have surprised her as a Crummer Graduate School of Business student planning a career in health-care administration. It’s a testament to her determination to follow her passion and the transferable knowledge and skills she learned at Crummer that prepared her to succeed no matter the role or industry.

“I fell in love with it,” she says, “the ability to make a difference in people’s lives through policy.”

After graduating from Crummer, Levesque served in the Florida legislature for six years, working alongside the speaker of the house as the staff director of the House K-12 Committee and House Education Council. In 2022, she became deputy chief of staff and top education advisor for Gov. Jeb Bush. Looking back on that time, she points to more than a few impressive wins—among them helping establish the Bright Futures Scholarship for Florida students. But one example particularly stands out.

Her office had become aware of a constituent whose high-school daughter was set to graduate. The father hadn’t realized that a decision made years earlier to place her on an alternative curriculum track meant she wouldn’t be earning a standard diploma. Levesque and her colleagues helped pass a law to ensure the same thing wouldn’t happen again, requiring separate parental consent before placing a child on an alternate diploma path or moving them to a special-needs school.

It makes sense then that when it came time to transition out of government, Levesque stayed embedded in K-12 policy. As the CEO of ExcelinEd, she oversees a nationwide initiative to advance student-centered policy solutions that improve learning, eliminate inequities, and prepare grads for college and careers.

“Reading policy is a major focus,” she explains, “because research shows nine out of 10 students who drop out of high school weren’t proficient readers by third grade. The outcomes are even worse for low-income students and students of color.”

She points to what is referred to as the “Mississippi Miracle” as an example of how this work has led to tangible results. After implementing new policies that required schools to use science-backed, phonetic reading instruction, the state moved from 50th to ninth in the country for fourth-grade reading scores. ExcelinEd has helped usher in similar sea changes across the U.S.

“There are now thousands of kids who have better trajectories because they know how to read,” she says, proudly. “This is the kind of stuff we love to work on. We’re always asking how we can make the system work better.”

With Levesque at the helm, ExcelinEd has also helped inform phone-free schools and support school choice policies. Much of her success in both the government and nonprofit sectors, she says, is thanks to skills she learned early on as a student at Crummer.

“The business and finance courses prepared me to handle budgets and planning,” she says. “But I especially loved the organizational behavior classes—learning how to work with different types of people.”

Whether it’s been donors or policy leaders or colleagues, she says this ability to understand how people think is invaluable. In fact, at different points in her career, she has often used a personality assessment she learned at Crummer to help her staff understand and relate to each other more effectively.

“In government and nonprofit work, collaboration and compromise are essential,” she says. “There are always competing interests, limited time, and limited resources. You have to stay clear about your mission and focus on achieving it.”

Reflecting on her recent recognition, Levesque is humbled.

“It’s such an honor,” she says. “It’s a privilege to receive an award from such an incredible institution. I often run into elected officials who are Rollins graduates, and there’s always a sense of camaraderie and fondness.”

In the end, for Levesque, it all comes back to helping people solve problems.

“In so many cases, we’ve truly changed the power dynamic for families,” she says. “I’m so proud of that.”