Lewis begins as Community Lighthouse Network Coordinator at Duke University

Michelle Lewis has joined Duke University’s Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability as the Community Lighthouse Network Coordinator for the Heat Policy Innovation Hub. Her work focuses on “how cosmologies and faith traditions shape our engagement with the natural world, and how built and natural environments, in turn, shape communities of faith,” she shared on LinkedIn. “In my role I’ll be partnering with faith communities as we think, dream and work toward a more resilient future.” 

Michelle’s Duke bio shares that “before her work at the Nicholas Institute, Michelle Lewis served as the Agent of Thriving for Climate and Environmental Justice at the Ormond Center at Duke Divinity School…. 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.”