Shelby F. Lewis

Lewis was born in Shreveport, Louisiana.[1] As an undergraduate she attended Southern University, earning a BA in political science in 1960.[2] Upon graduating in 1960, she was named a Woodrow Wilson Fellow by the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation.[2][1] She then earned an MA in political science at the University of Massachusetts in 1963, followed by a PhD in political science from the University of New Orleans in 1973.[2][3]

In 1962, Lewis became an Education Officer at the Ministry of Education in Uganda, and then from 1965 until 1967 was a Director at the Tororo Girls School in Tororo, Uganda.[4] While in Uganda, she was also part of the Teachers for East Africa Program.[2]

From the late 1960s until the early 1980s, Lewis was a faculty member at a series of institutions, including the University of New Orleans, Southern University, Atlanta University, and the University of Zambia.[2] In 1983, she was a Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the National University of Lesotho, where she helped to establish the Women's Research Collective.[2][3]

After a year as a Distinguished Faculty Fellow at the United Negro College Fund, Lewis became an international development consultant, assuming a series of leadership roles in organizations like the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.[3] In 1988 she returned to academia, becoming a professor at Dillard University.[2] In 1989, she moved to Clark Atlanta University, where she would ultimately become a professor emerita.[5][6] Lewis was twice the Interim Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Clark Atlanta University: once from 1989 to 1990, and again in 1993.[2][7] Between 1995 and 1997, Lewis worked at Morris Brown College as Vice President for Academic Affairs.[8]

In 2010, United States President Barack Obama appointed Shelby F. Lewis to the 12-person J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board which supervises programs like the Fulbright Program under the Fulbright–Hays Act of 1961.[3]

Lewis served on the inaugural Editorial Advisory Board of the National Review of Black Politics, while affiliated with the African Renaissance and Diaspora Network Board.[9]

In 2018, NAFSA: Association of International Educators awarded Lewis the NAFSA International Education Award for Leadership and Collaboration,[10] which "honors the contributions of an international educator to international exchange on a global scale".[11]