Hope Jensen Leichter, Elbenwood Professor Emerita of Education and Director of the Elbenwood Center for the Study of the Family as Educator at Teachers College, passed away on May 25, 2025, at age 97.
Leichter was an active and beloved member of the Teachers College faculty for more than 60 years, from 1962 to 2024. She taught many highly sought after classes throughout her career and as recently as Fall 2023. The Elbenwood Center for the Study of the Family as Educator originated through the vision of Leichter, and she served as its director beginning with its creation in 1979.
Her scholarship and teaching focused on the many and varied forms of education in which families play critical roles. She taught courses on the Family as Educator, Education in Museums with a focus on New York City’s many museums as important educational institutions, Family Memories, Education in Television and Media, as well as multiple graduate research seminars. Over her career she served as primary sponsor for more than 70 doctoral student thesis projects including as recently as May 2025. She served as a committee member of more than 150 additional doctoral candidates, as well as very large numbers of masters student projects.
Her publications include influential books, The Family as Educator (1979), Families and Communities as Educators (1979), Kinship and Casework (1967, co-authored with her life-long colleague, the late Dr. William Mitchell). She also published a large number of scholarly articles and frequently made public presentations.
With the understanding that family members are lifelong educators and that children’s first form of education often come from parents and grandparents at home, she led the Elbenwood Center in examining family education and its relationship with other educational institutions — such as schools, religious institutions, museums, libraries, the media — through the integration of interdisciplinary fields in the humanities and behavioral and social sciences. Among the Center’s many projects was a recent effort to examine influences of the COVID-19 pandemic on blurred boundaries between work and school and family life for parents and children working and studying from home.
Leichter received her B.A. from Oberlin College (1950) and Ph.D. in Social Relations from Harvard University (1959). She studied at the Sorbonne University in Paris under a Fulbright fellowship. Career awards included a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation award (1981) supporting her scholarship on family memories, being elected as a member of the National Academy of Education (1979), and being named the Outstanding Professor of the Year Award of the Student Senate at Teachers College (1990-91). Early in her career she worked with the Russell Sage Foundation and maintained contacts with the Foundation throughout her career at Teachers College.
Leichter’s scholarship is internationally recognized. She was a longtime member of the International Study Group (ISG) for education in families of children with special needs. She was a frequent invited presenter at international meetings in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. In 2019, she collaborated with Columbia Global Centers | Beijing as part of a centennial year event celebrating John Dewey’s visit to China. The following year, she was invited as a panelist to participate in the Center’s event Reset the Future I: Educating Globally Competent Children, which was joined virtually by over 8,000 participants, exploring topics centering on the importance of individual experiences in gaining global educational competence.
Leichter will be remembered particularly fondly for her teaching and mentorship of students. Current and former students recently contributed to an unpublished collection recounting their extraordinary advising experiences with “Professor Hope” including many one-on-one creative mentoring discussions lasting late into the night. As a scholar and member of the Teachers College and Columbia University communities she believed in the enduring value of individual approaches to education, in open and respectful communications across families and educational institutions, and in trusting families to navigate complex educational environments. Her mentorship inspired students and alumni is a testament to her intellectual prowess and ability to connect with and see the best in others. Her loss will be profoundly felt by the countless lives she touched at Teachers College.
She is survived by her three sons, Frederick Stinson Leichter, William Joseph Leichter, and James Jensen Leichter, and her three grandchildren Alexander, Claire, and Caroline. Her husband of 59 years Henry Otto Leichter (Columbia M.S. 1950, J.D. 1957) predeceased in 2010. A memorial at Columbia University to celebrate her achievements and life will be planned for the Fall.