When Thomas S. Lee was in middle school, he never thought he’d make a living introducing students to world-renowned artists such as Yo-Yo Ma ’76, Mandy Patinkin and Whoopi Goldberg—in fact, he says he was too insecure to even imagine himself involved in the arts.

Once quiet because of a childhood speech impediment, Lee is now vocal about his love for the arts. He spends his days bringing celebrities to Harvard, fighting AIDS with art and pushing policymakers to consider arts in decision-making.

The ever-smiling and enthusiastic Lee, who directs the Office for the Arts (OFA) Learning From Performers program, was himself an actor before he turned to arts administration.

But in seventh grade, he says he’d never even considered theater, although his aunt took him to plays often in their hometown of Philadelphia.

“I had a dehabilitating stutter,” Lee says. “It was really difficult for me to express myself.”

But his teacher convinced him to try out for Oliver, so Lee mustered up his courage to audition. It was a an experience that transformed him into more than just the “artful dodger.”

“When I got on stage and acted a role, I didn’t stutter,” Lee says. “The arts saved my life. Theater brought me out of my shell and made me more confident.”

Lee points out that many other artists—James Earl Jones, Richard Burton and Carly Simon—have undergone similar transformations.

Although he devoted himself to theater throughout high school and at Pennsylvania State University, Lee says he lacked the “stuff” a professional artist needed: “There was a struggle for me in finding a career…whether I would be an artist or an arts administrator.”

“Ultimately, I didn’t have the ‘stuff,’ the drive to pursue a career as an artist...[I didn’t have] that fire in my belly,” he adds, wiggling his fingers to illustrate those flames.

So Lee decided to become a behind-the-scenes motivator.

“I can be a person…who gets things done,” he says. “A person who makes things happen by introducing people.”

After graduating college with a degree in English and working in public relations for two years, in 1985 Lee became a journalist at Boston’s South End News, where he edited, reviewed films and wrote about arts and lifestyle.

“I came from a newspaper family. There was ink in my blood,” Lee says. But he decided that journalism made him feel “a little too much on the outside looking in.”

“I wanted to be a part of the art-making process,” he says.