Since 1993, Leslie has served as the National Park Service GIS program manager, in Denver. She came to the National Park Service in 1991 working in the Associate Director of Natural Resources office as the GIS Division liaison in Washington D.C. Leslie has managed procurement and acquisition of cartographic data and satellite imagery for parks, developed GIS professional competencies and a GIS training program, and redirected GIS software standards to COTS software. Leslie and the GIS Division, developed and implemented the first NPS web site, spatial data clearinghouse, and most recently the NPS Interactive Map Center.

From 1981 to 1991 Leslie served at the Defense Mapping Agency, in the Washington D.C. area in several capacities: cartographer, Latin American mapping liaison officer, and assistant instructor of GIS and Remote Sensing at the Inter- American Geodetic Survey School in Panama. She also was the technical manager of the Source Acquisition Segment (SAS) Modernization Program and completed the Women's Executive Leadership Program. During off duty hours, Leslie occasionally filled in as a cartographer at the Washington Post.

Leslie finished her BA in Psychology and Spanish (with minors in Geography and History) and was a graduate student in Geography at South Dakota State University. While attending the university, Leslie spent 3 years as an intern at the Remote Sensing Institute on campus, working with the Visiting Scientist Program through the USGS EROS Data Center, in Sioux Falls.