Porter-Billups Leadership ACADEMY

In 1996, Regis University Men’s Head Basketball Coach Lonnie Porter and his daughter Staci Porter-Bentley established the Lonnie Porter Leadership Academy to provide academic and leadership training to students in underserved communities in Denver.

In 2006, NBA star — and now Portland Trail Blazers Head Coach — Chauncey Billups  joined forces with PBLA. In 2024, Coach Ricardo Patton joined PBLA as an executive director and Coach Lonnie Porter moved into the Founder Emeritus role. Coach Porter, Coach Billups and Coach Patton credit their success to the people who challenged them to work hard and get an education at a young age. The Academy is a way for both men to do for low-income youth what others did for them.

Billups and Porter grew up in inner city neighborhoods. They credit their success to the people who challenged them at a young age to work hard and get an education. The Academy is a way for them to support youth in the way that others supported them.

As Regis University’s flagship college prep program, scholarships up to full tuition to Regis are available to PBLA graduates once they successfully complete the multi-year participation requirement and qualify financially and academically for admittance. PBLA’s vision is to be a pivotal support system that nurtures the vision of young leaders to dream big and achieve their goals by offering a variety of relevant academic experiences. These include instruction in leadership, social justice, the arts, engineering, financial literacy, robotics and so much more. Providing students with ongoing exposure to a college campus each summer allows them to gain the confidence they need to apply for and attend college in the future.