Heather Lewis

Heather Lewis is an associate professor of urban history and education at Pratt Institute. She holds a PhD in the history of education from New York University and is a former Miller Center Fellow in Public Affairs. Her research and teaching integrate the history of education, social movements, and urban development through the prism of New York City’s local communities and their changes over time.

As a public school parent, school board member, and reformer in New York City’s schools, she helped lead the small-schools movement of the 1980s and 1990s. During this time she served as the co-director of the Center for Collaborative Education, the New York City center of the Coalition of Essential Schools. Her participation in the Columbia University Revson Fellowship program influenced her decision to return to school to study history but at the same time remain connected to the fight for social justice in New York City’s schools and communities.