Lee Perlman earned his BA from St. John’s College (Annapolis) and then pursued graduate work in philosophy at the Catholic University of America. He completed an MA in political philosophy at Georgetown University. Before earning his PhD at MIT, Lee spent eight years working in the political arena as a public interest lobbyist and political organizer. In 1978, Baltimore Magazine named him “the most feared lobbyist in Maryland.” He has taught at Harvard University, Brown University, Swarthmore College, Phillips Academy (Andover), and, for over 30 years, at MIT. Lee considers himself to be primarily an educator, and prides himself on designing and teaching courses that teach what he calls “philosophical life skills.” Among these are his courses ES.112 (Philosophy of Love) and ES.114 (Non-Violence as a Way of Life), as well as the seminar “Authenticity.” Lee has been awarded the Irwin Sizer Award for Most Significant Improvement to MIT Education three times (1997, 2015, and 2019). He was also awarded MIT’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Award in 2018. Lee is a composer and musician, and the music director of the Deborah Abel Dance Company, which has toured in the United States, Mexico, and India.