Lesly Deschler Canossi (She/her) (she/her) is a connector and cultural producer. Joining Place Corps as the Fellowship Director she brings over 15 years experience as an arts educator with a deep focus on youth focused community engagement.  As a long time faculty at the International Center of Photography she is interested in lifting stories that may have gone unnoticed - creating conversations in support of representational justice. In 2016, she co-created Women Picturing Revolution an organization dedicated to women-identifying photographers who have documented conflicts and crises in private realms and public spaces. In 2023, she co-edited Black Matrilineage, Photography, and Representation: Another Way of Knowing (Leuven University Press).

She is excited to support Place Corps fellows in ways that feel authentic and courageous as they transition into beautiful adult humans. She believes that building sustainable lives with integrity and possibility takes a village. 

Lesly lives in Beacon, New York, with her family on a micro homestead that includes honey bees and fig trees. Her children attend public schools and she is a regular volunteer at ice cream socials and park clean ups. In her free time she leads a dynamic photography critique group at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, in Kingston.Lesly holds an MFA (Photography and Digital Imaging) from the Maryland Institute College of Art.