December STAR Award, Thomas Leahy

December STAR Award Recipient

Tom Leahy

Tom is co-owner and Managing Partner of Optimum Ed, a Richmond-based higher education and financial aid planning firm, and the co-founder and current president of Beacon Tree Foundation, dedicated to assisting families with mentally ill children, by providing information, resources and funding.

Tom is a member of the Virginia Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and the Higher Education Consultants Association, as well as a member of the International Association of Registered Financial Consultants.

He is the president-elect for the St. Francis Medical Center Community Advisory Board, the treasurer for the Virginia Treatment Center for Children’s Advisory Council and is a member of the Children’s Mental Health Resource Center’s program committee.

He recently published the third edition of his college planning book “The No-Nonsense Guide to Higher Education,” and has been published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Tom has delivered seminars for The Governor's School for International Studies, Richmond Community High School for the Gifted and Talented, the Chesterfield County School System's "Very Informed Parents' Program" (VIP) as well as other schools, church and civic organizations, and corporations.

He and his wife, Diana, live in Midlothian and have four children and two grandchildren.