Dr. Brittany Lewis is a well-respected community engaged qualitative scholar, thought leader, speaker, and author known for bringing those most often locked out of local decision-making processes to the action research table for close to 10 years. Dr. Lewis is the Founder and CEO of Research in Action, an urban research consulting firm, and is currently a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota. Formerly, Dr. Lewis was a Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank Scholar in Residence and Visiting Assistant Professor at Macalester College in Political Science and American Studies. Dr. Lewis’ is the Principal Investigator of the Illusion of Choice: Evictions and Profit in North Minneapolis report and the Co-Principal Investigator on the recently published report entitled: The Diversity of Gentrification: Multiple Forms of Gentrification in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Dr. Lewis’s research was used in a Minnesota Supreme Court case to expand rights for tenants facing evictions, as direct testimony at the Minnesota State Legislature, and to inform the human services and public safety impact agenda within Hennepin County and the City of Minneapolis. Dr. Lewis has consulted with philanthropic partners such as the Pohlad and Graves Foundation who refer directly to Dr. Lewis’s research as they develop their own scope of work and strategic plans of action.
Dr. Lewis serves on the Metropolitan Council Livable Communities Advisory Committee, the City of Minneapolis Housing Advisory Council, and the State of Minnesota Working Group on Police-Involved Deadly Force Encounters. Dr. Lewis is the author of a number of state and city reports, featured in a series of academic journals, and has been honored with a number of research fellowships and a best paper award. Dr. Lewis’s expertise has also been featured in documentaries such as the Jim Crow of the North (2019) and A Fiery Unrest: Why Plymouth Avenue Burned (2019).