Project Lead The Way (PLTW) was created to address the United States’ need for more leaders in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). In 1986, Richard Blais, chairman of the Technology Department in the Shenendehowa Central School District in upstate New York, began offering pre-engineering and digital electronics classes to encourage students to study engineering. He developed a rigorous, relevant curriculum and paired it with a dynamic, interactive learning environment to produce more successful, confident, and interested students. Based on the success of these classes, Blais partnered with Richard Liebich, whose family founded the Charitable Leadership Foundation (CLF), to create Project Lead The Way. In 1997, PLTW launched its “Pathway To Engineering” program in 12 New York high schools. Over the next few years, a partnership with the High Schools That Work initiative of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) brought PLTW programs to an additional 30 states. Today, PLTW is the nation’s leading activities-, project-, and problem-based (APPB) program for middle and high school STEM education. More than 300,000 students are currently engaged in PLTW classes in nearly 3,500 schools. Programs are established in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In June 2009, in conjunction with a major commitment to expansion by the Kern Family Foundation, John Lock was named CEO/President of PLTW. Lock previously served as Executive Director of California’s Environmental Charter High School and established the Colorado-based Charter School Growth Fund, a social venture investment fund. Under Lock’s leadership, PLTW has renewed its commitment to providing the most rigorous and relevant middle and high school STEM education programs and to cultivating critical thinking and innovation in students across the country. PLTW’s next generation of leadership is ready to meet the challenges of developing America’s next generation of leaders.