Michelle E. Lewis

Michelle Lewis is a research associate for the Heat Policy Innovation Hub. Before her work at the Nicholas Institute, she served as the Agent of Thriving for Climate and Environmental Justice at the Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School. She earned her doctoral degree from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology. Lewis holds a master of environmental science from Yale School of the Environment and a master of divinity from Yale Divinity School, along with a certificate from Yale Institute of Sacred Music and the Arts. She studied film at Regent University, where she completed a master of arts in communication. Lewis has worked in both rural and urban contexts and has led community-based participatory research. Her research has focused on how faith communities connect with the environment through their existing cosmologies, the effects of green space on patient outcomes, and the environmental theologies of Black coastal communities.

Lewis is ordained in the United Methodist Church and is a former US park ranger. She founded and directs the Outer Banks Environmental Film Festival. In her free time, she grows food at the Peace Garden Project.