Volunteer of the Week: Leslie Esposito

By Marilyn McMahon (Santa Barbara Newspress-1999)

Dyslexia was unknown to Leslie V. Esposito until 10 years ago. Now, he spends much of his time educating the community about learning disabilities that can hamper a person's ability to read.

"My wife Joan had the problem, which we discovered soon after we were married. We didn't realize what it was," Esposito said. "She was almost a recluse. I thought it was because she was shy or because she was from England. I also noticed that Joan had trouble writing."

The problem came to light when Esposito's stepson, Joel, began to have problems while attending Cate High School. When it was suggested that Joel might have dyslexia, Esposito and his wife went to a seminar to learn more about the disability.

"One of the first things we learned was that dyslexia can be inherited. As the speaker described other symptoms, we realized Joan might have dyslexia too" said Esposito. "I had been in education for a long time but I knew nothing about the learning disability."

Tests at Santa Barbara City College Learning Disabilities Center confirmed the Espositos' suspicions that Joan had dyslexia and attention deficit disorder. After the diagnosis, Joan Esposito enrolled at the Santa Barbara City College Learning Disabilities Center and learned how to read, spell, write and use computers.

Several years later, the couple decided to focus their time and energy on making people aware of dyslexia. They founded the Dyslexia Awareness & Resource Center in 1991.

We founded the Center with an initial $2,500 grant from the local Soroptimist Club. We used the money to get our nonprofit status," said Esposito, who now juggles his work as a local real estate broker with his volunteer commitment as the Executive Director and Director of Development for the Center.

His wife, Joan, serves as program director of the Center and travels all over the country giving talks on learning disabilities and advocating on behalf of low income at risk children with dyslexia.

The couple staff the Center, which is located at 928 Carpinteria St, Suite 2, Santa Barbara, California.

"We probably have the largest library on the West Coast consisting of books, audio and videotapes plus thousands of articles with information about dyslexia and other learning disabilities" Esposito said. "The library is constantly used by schools, students, teachers and other individuals."

Plans are now in the works for the Center's third annual conference, "The Vision and the Task," scheduled January 30,1999, at Santa Barbara Community College. The first two annual conferences were sellouts.

"We get top speakers on learning disabilities from all over the country to speak at our conferences. Dr. Mel Levine from the University of North Carolina will speak this year about dyslexia and attention deficit disorder during the 2009 annual conference," Esposito said.

A resident of Santa Barbara since 1988, Esposito moved here after spending 17 years in the priesthood serving the Catholic Diocese of Los Angeles as a teacher, vice principal and principal in their Catholic igh Schools.

"I was born in San Pedro, California, the oldest of seven children from a good Italian Catholic family," he said.

He earned his bachelor of arts and master of divinity degrees at St John's College in Camarillo. Esposito earned a master of science degree in administrative management from Mount St. Mary's College in Los Angeles and is now studying for his doctorate of education degree at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles.

"Although it was a difficult decision, I decided to leave the priesthood. I met my future wife, Joan, while I was visiting friends in Santa Barbara. I did a lot of praying on the decission to leave the active ministry. I finally realized I was a lonely man," Esposito said. "Joan and I fell in love and were eventually married Christmas Eve 1987 at All-Saints-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church in Montecito."

Les is a former member of the Ventura Optimist Club and former member of the Phoenix House board of directors. Other than his work with the Dyslexia Awareness and Resource Center, Esposito is actively involved with the Montecito International Rotary Club, serving as the club's president last year. His grandfather and uncle were also past presidents of their Rotary Clubs in San Pedro, Califronia.

For his "long record of public service" and his contributions to the community, Esposito was presented with the Rotary Club's prestigious Paul Harris Fellow award.

"The Rotary Club has been very supportive of DARC," Esposito said. "For example, the club has provided the center with matching grant funds. Thanks to a recent grant from Rotary International, we were able to buy books, audio and visual tapes for dyslexic readers who use the public library."

If you were to ask Esposito what he considers his proudest accomplishment, it would probably be the career success of his stepson. Despite his problems with dyslexia, Joel Brand, now 28, is an anchorman with Channel One, the network for high schools.

"Joel travels to hot spots around the world. He just returned from Kuwait. During the war in Yugoslavia, Joel was a foreign correspondent for Newsweek and the London Times," said Esposito.

Santa Barbara News-Press