Dr. Earl Lewis ’78, director and founder of the University of Michigan Center for Social Solutions, has been elected a 2022 Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS).
Each year the AAPSS invites a small group of outstanding scholars/public servants including sociologists, political scientists, psychologists, and economists, as well as scholars and practitioners in communications, education, government, and public policy to join the Academy as Fellows. Each Fellowship is named after a distinguished scholar or civic leader who has contributed to its journal, The Annals.
At the U of Michigan, Lewis is also the Thomas C. Holt Distinguished University Professor of History, Afroamerican and African Studies, and public policy. He’s also president emeritus of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (2013-18), one of the premier philanthropies supporting the arts, humanities, and higher education.
Lewis has authored or edited nine books, scores of essays, articles, and comments, served as co-general editor of the 11-volume “Young Oxford History of African Americans,” and is currently co-editing the “Our Compelling Interests” book series.
Lewis has been a member and chair of Concordia’s Board of Regents and helped fund diversity scholarships along with alumna Fay Ferguson ’73. As a member of numerous boards of directors or trustees, he was also an Obama administration appointee to the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity.
Lewis, a native of Norfolk, Va., graduated from Concordia with honors in history and psychology and earned a doctorate in history from the University of Minnesota (1984). He is the recipient of 11 honorary degrees, is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008).