Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Alumni
  • Login
  • Volunteer
  • Clubs
  • Reunions
  • Bulletin
  • Class Notes
  • Help
  • Give Now
  • Stories
  • Alumni Directory
  • Lifelong Learning
  • Careers
  • Programs & Events
  • Giving
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Alumni→
  • Stories→

Stories

Stories

08 Sep 2022

Learning Curve

Patti Melcher quit her job in private equity at 35 and founded the Joy School to help address her daughter’s learning disabilities. Twenty-five years later, it’s serving 150 children in the Houston region.
Re: Patti Melcher (MBA 1986)
Topics: Education-GeneralCareer-Career ChangesLeadership-Leading Change
ShareBar

Courtesy Patti Melcher

Patti Melcher (MBA 1986) never intended to open a school but when her first child, Katie, struggled with learning disabilities, the private equity strategist turned her attention to finding the best learning environment for her daughter.

Melcher cofounded the Joy School in 1997, as an experiment, with just four students. Katie and three others would benefit from both individualized attention and interaction with other children. Jerome Rosner, an optometrist and University of Houston professor (who passed away in 2014), and Shara Bumgarner, a Houston elementary school teacher who is now head of school, set the simple educational philosophy—“just teach them”—which entailed meeting the students, academically and otherwise, exactly where they were.

Melcher served as president and handled the business side of the school, which grew quickly. When the organization established a board about five years after its founding, she served as chair. While Melcher couldn’t see the future of the Joy School clearly, she knew she wanted to build something that would outlast its founders: “It didn’t matter how big the school was; it needed to be a viable institution that really helped these kids,” Melcher observes.

Today, the school enrolls about 150 students—kindergarten through eighth grade—who have a variety of social, learning, and communication disorders, from approximately 40 communities throughout the Houston area. Melcher, who left the board in the mid-2000s and now serves as a trustee of the endowment, has returned to private equity, cofounding EIV Capital in 2009. And Katie is thriving in a semi-independent community for adults with intellectual disabilities. Looking back, Melcher says, “I feel really lucky to have been able to do something that’s really made a difference, not just for my daughter and my family but also for hundreds of families.”

Support the next generation of leaders Make a gift now
ShareBar

Featured Alumni

Patti Melcher
MBA 1986

Post a Comment

Featured Alumni

Patti Melcher
MBA 1986

Related Stories

    • 14 Dec 2022
    • HBS Managing the Future of Work Project

    Abby Falik on Global Citizen Year and Finding Purpose

    Re: Abby Falik (MBA 2008)
    • 05 May 2022
    • Skydeck

    Lesson Plans

    Re: Sal Khan (MBA 2003)
    • 22 Feb 2022
    • HBS Alumni Bulletin

    Vision: Learning Curve

    Re: Azeez Gupta (MBA 2019); Ashish Dhawan (MBA 1997); Sid Yog (MBA 2004); By: Alexander Gelfand
    • 02 Mar 2021
    • Harvard Gazette

    Bloomberg Philanthropies & Harvard Create New Bloomberg Center for Cities to Support Mayors

    Re: Mike Bloomberg (MBA 1966); Emma Bloomberg (MBA 2007)

More Related Stories

 
 
 
 
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
  • Explore
ǁ
Campus Map
External Relations
Harvard Business School
Teele Hall
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
Phone: 1.617.495.6890
Email: alumni+hbs.edu
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
  • Terms of Use
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College