Successful School Business Partnerships

Jim Leatherwood is the author of Facing the Future Together:  Forming Successful School-Business Partnerships.  Employed by private enterprise for several years he became an educator and immediately saw the connection.

“A symbiotic relationship exists between education, business and industry but often goes unrecognized until these different sectors collaborate.”

As an educator, he successfully engineered more than 50 partnerships at the K-12 and community college levels.  The first partnership between Kaiser Permanente Medical Center and La Sierra High School was established in 1987 and is still functioning today.

Jim holds an MA in education, a BA in history and credentials in educational administration, counseling and teaching.  He served in each of these positions during a career lasting more than three decades.  Several awards have been presented to Jim for his work in forming partnerships including Outstanding Vocational Education Administrator of the year for the State of California, the NISOD Award of Excellence for Community College Leadership and a Special Service Award from Rotary International.

Upon retirement as a community college Dean of Occupational Education, Jim was highly recruited to consult with K-12 and community college districts.  Unable to find a “how-to” book that addressed both the educator and businessperson as future partners, he wrote Facing the Future Together.

Jim’s first job as an educator was in Sierra Leone, West Africa as a Peace Corps teacher of geography and government.  In Sierra Leone he met his wife Brenda who is currently an elementary school teacher in Rialto, California.

Currently, Jim Leatherwood has been a featured speaker at many education and business functions.  He is available as a speaker by contacting This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or by writing him at The Brooke Press, P.O. Box 20774, Riverside, California 92516-0774.