The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs is excited to announce that CURA’s Senior Research Associate Dr. Brittany Lewis has been named the 2024 President's Community-Engaged Scholar.
The University of Minnesota President's Community-Engaged Scholar Award recognizes one faculty or P&A researcher annually for exemplary engaged scholarship. The award recipients have demonstrated a longstanding academic career that embodies the University of Minnesota’s definition of public engagement. The President's Community-Engaged Scholar Award is the highest recognition for community-engaged scholarship at the University of Minnesota.
“During her time at the University and CURA, Dr. Brittany Lewis has established herself as one of the most prominent community-engaged scholars on racial equity in this region. In a relatively short period, she has built a remarkable record of community-based research that has had a significant policy impact on local governments and philanthropic organizations,” said CURA Director Edward Goetz.
Dr. Lewis’ research interests focus on issues of racial and gender equity. She utilizes mixed-method social science approaches to investigate equity across a number of issue domains, including housing and housing policy, social service provision, neighborhood change, the criminal justice system, and economic development.
“Authentic community-engaged scholarship is about a willingness to be implicated in the change we seek in the world as well as a commitment to model what it looks like to relinquish power to community. I would like to thank the hundreds of Black and brown families that have entrusted to me their stories of displacement, physical and economic violence, and social and political marginalization. Together, in solidarity, we will achieve urban justice,” said Dr. Lewis.
A sampling of Dr. Brittany Lewis’ CURA research
- ‘Families for Finance,’ A Financial Empowerment Program for Shelter Guests: An Evaluation of Program Design and Pilot Program Execution
- Brooklyn Center Housing Report: Livability, affordability, accessibility, and safety
- Searching for Stability: Futility, choice, and access in the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s Housing Choice Voucher Program
- The Brooklyn Park Housing Project
- Minneapolis Rent Stabilization Study
- The Illusion of Choice: Evictions and Profit in North Minneapolis
- The Diversity of Gentrification: Multiple Forms of Gentrification in Minneapolis and St. Paul
