Shirley A. R. Lewis
American educator, academic administrator (born 1937)
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Shirley Ann Redd Lewis (née Redd; born June 11, 1937) was an American educator, academic administrator, and college president. In 1994, she was the first female president of Paine College, a private, historically black Methodist college in Augusta, Georgia.[1][2] Her research focus was in language acquisition in education.[3] She also held roles at Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development, and Meharry Medical College.[4]
June 11, 1937
Shirley A. R. Lewis | |
|---|---|
| 13th President of Paine College | |
| In office 1994–2007 | |
| Preceded by | Julius Samuel Scott Jr. |
| Succeeded by | George C. Bradley |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Shirley Ann Redd June 11, 1937 |
| Spouse | Ronald McGhee Lewis |
| Children | 1, Mendi Lewis |
| Education | University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University |
| Occupation | Educator, academic administrator, college president |
Early life and education
Shirley Ann Redd was born on June 11, 1937 in Winding Gulf, West Virginia.[5][6] Her parents were Thelma Danese Biggers Redd and Ronald F. Redd, her father worked as a school teacher.[5] When she was young her parents divorced, which caused her to move with her mother in order for her mother to find work; together they moved to Beckley, West Virginia; Harlem, New York City; Cambridge, Massachusetts, and eventually settle down in Berkeley, California.[5] Her mother worked as a children's nurse.[5] She attended Berkeley High School.[5]
She graduated from University of California, Berkeley (1960 B.A. in Spanish and M.S.W. in social work); and Stanford University (PhD 1979 in education).[5][1] She also did graduate level teaching credential work at San Francisco State University and California State University, Hayward (now California State University, East Bay).[5]
Career
From 1962 until 1963, she worked as a Spanish teacher at the Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto.[5]
After her marriage, she and her husband traveled to Africa three times. The first visit was to Ghana in 1966; followed by Liberia, Senegal, Nigeria, and Ivory Coast; and again to Ghana in 1968.[5] In 1968, she and her husband received certificates in Africa studies from a joint program hosted by the University of Ghana and the University of London.[5]
In the 1970s, Lewis worked for welfare rights organizations and at community schools.[5] From 1972 to 1975, she taught English classes at Nairobi College, a private junior college in East Palo Alto, California.[5] She also taught linguistics at Foothill College, a public community college in Los Altos, California.[5] While attending graduate school she worked as a supervisor of the Stanford Teacher Education Program from 1972 until 1974.[5] This was followed by work at Stanford University School of Education's program on cultural and linguistic pluralism, where she co-authored linguistic research papers.[5] Her doctorate degree was awarded in 1979 in education, with a focus on language acquisition for bilingual and bidialectical students.[5]
From 1979 to 1980, she moved to Nashville, to hold an adjunct professor role at the Vanderbilt Peabody College of Education and Human Development.[5] From 1981 to 1984, Lewis worked as an educational specialist at Meharry Medical College.[5] In 1984, she was appointed to associate dean of academic affairs at Meharry.[5] This was followed by executive director role at the United Methodist Church's Black College Fund from 1986 to 1991, and a promotion to assistant general secretary in 1992.[5]
In 1994, Lewis was elected president of Paine College, replacing Julius S. Scott Jr.[5][7] Within the 41 schools in the United Negro College Fund system, she was one of four women elected to president.[5] Lewis was also the first female president at Paine College, in its 112 years of existence.[1][8][9] She served as president of Paine College until 2007.[10]
Files of Lewis’s work with the United Methodist Church Black College Fund are located in Nashville, Tennessee. Files from her presidency of Paine College are located at the campus.