Dr. Brittany Lewis
Dr. Lewis at a Glance
Dr. Brittany Lewis is the Founder and CEO at Research in Action, a ground-breaking social benefit corporation established in 2018 to reclaim the power of research by centering community expertise.
Dr. Lewis is the author of “Building a New Table: A Community-Centered Handbook for Transformative Social Change” published by University of Minnesota Press.
Dr. Lewis is a powerful coach and trainer who provides actionable skills and strategies to help organizations and individuals dismantle and replace oppressive systems
Dr. Lewis is a sought-after speaker has delivered talks on her research, leadership, and social justice across the nation.
“When someone says there is only one way, I challenge you to show them 10.”
Biography
When I came out as a queer Black teenage girl, my immediate family didn't know what to do with me. I was fortunate that a loving Black woman with little means took me in, because I now know the statistics of what happens to so many houseless Black girls: they get trafficked, abused, murdered — and authorities are less likely to sound the Amber Alert when we go missing or find ourselves needing to choose less inhospitable options for housing.
Though my situation put me behind in my classes initially, I was the first person from my high school to go to Macalester College. As an undergrad, I became keenly aware of the systemic nature of poverty and how my life experiences were shaped by policy decisions made by officials that, in many ways, constrained the range of choices I had based on my identity and my community. I also saw in my textbooks how most research about Black women framed us as objects for study and blamed Black mothers for everything from low birth weight to crime to intergenerational poverty.
I decided then that I wanted to learn how to create research that builds community power and creates equitable policy solutions.
I earned a doctorate degree at the age of 28, while having two children and becoming an author. Traditional research would have predicted a different outcome for me, a Black queer teen forced to leave her home to find the support that she needed. Instead, I became a respected thought leader and scholar, launching the research that led to the establishment of Minnesota's first Office of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls.
Book
When organizations take on social problems, from school reform to conservation to healthcare disparities, community members are sometimes “invited to the table” to share their insights. But if the table has already been set with institutional assumptions about the issue at hand, the solutions that emerge often have little to do with the people and places they are meant to help. When this is the case, inclusion can only go so far: as Dr. Brittany Lewis argues, it’s time to build a new table.
Research
Dr. Lewis is the Founder and CEO at Research in Action, a ground-breaking social benefit corporation established in 2018 to reclaim the power of research by centering community expertise. In deep collaboration with hundreds of community members, she co-created the innovative Equity in Action model that redistributes power and is accountable to the inherent leadership of impacted community members at every step of the research process. Her research has been used to catalyze action in myriad ways, including:
in a Minnesota Supreme Court to expand rights for tenants facing evictions
at the Minnesota State Legislature to inform the human services and public safety impact agendas
at Hennepin County to remove a harmful self pay policy at homeless shelters
at the City of Minneapolis to guide the creation of a tenant protection ordinance
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2022
Searching for Stability: Futility, Choice, and Access in the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority’s Housing Choice Voucher Program commissioned by the UMN Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority
Brooklyn Center Housing Report: Livability, affordability, accessibility commissioned by the City of Brooklyn Center
Brooklyn Park Housing Report commissioned by the City of Brooklyn Park, Hennepin County, and the State of Minnesota
2019
The Illusion of Choice: Evictions and Profit in North Minneapolis commissioned by the UMN Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and other partners
2015
The State of Black Women’s Economics in Minnesota commissioned by the UMN Center for Urban and Regional Affairs and the Black Women’s Wealth Alliance.
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2019
“Evictions & Inequality in North Minneapolis: Centering Community in the Creation of Public Policy” in Collaborations: A Journal of Community-Based Research and Practice, 3(1): 17, 1–14
The Black Freedom Struggle Further North: How Black Civic Activists and Grassroots Organizers in North Minneapolis, Minnesota Used A Local Governmental Instrument to Pursue Racial Reform from Within a White Liberal Urban Regime” in the National Political Science Review Vol 20.3
2016
“Beyond the Marches and into the Trenches: Black Women, Community Engaged Research, and Urban Community Development” in Powerlines Vol 4.1
2015
“Yearning: Black Female Academics, Everyday Black Women/Girls and The Search for a Social Justice Praxis,” In the National Political Science Review Vol. 17.1
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2021
“Rediscovering My Purpose: The Politics of Race, Access, and Change” in Sparked: George Floyd, Racism, and the Progressive Illusion, edited by Walter, Jacobs, Wendy Thompson, and Amy August
2016
“The Black Shadow of White Sympathy: Hunger Games, Disposable Black Girlhood, and the Unspoken Politics of the National Gun Debate” in Dangerous Discourses: Feminism, Gun Violence, and Civic Life edited by Catherine Squires
2014
“At the Margins of the American Political Imagination: Black Feminist Politics and the Racial Politics of the New Democrats” in Race and Hegemonic Struggle in the United States: Pop Culture, Politics, and Protest, edited by Mary Triece and Michael Lacy
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Speaking
Dr. Lewis is a sought-out speaker who has delivered talks on her research, leadership, and social justice across the nation. Her 2025 TEDx talk, The Illusion of Choice, has been viewed over 900 times. She was recently the keynote speaker at the Minnesota Social Service Association Annual Conference & Expo, and was the featured speaker at the Minnesota Equity & Justice Black Caucus Employee Resource Group’s Black History Month event.
Coaching
The work to dismantle and replace oppressive systems with just and equitable approaches is incredibly complicated. But there are specific strategies and approaches that make it possible to transform conditions in ourselves, our organizations and our communities. That’s the insight I offer in my coaching.
Work with Dr. Lewis
Hire thought leader and action researcher Dr. Lewis to speak at your event or provide individualized coaching services.
Discovery Meeting: Free, one-time consultation for a government, for-profit or non-profit partner to discuss a potential project idea.
Coaching Session: Sliding scale fee for an individual or organization looking for personal, professional or project based advise, business development, support or thought partnership.
Booking a Speaking Engagement: Free one-time consultation for an individual or organization looking to book Dr. Brittany Lewis for a speaking engagement, panel, workshop or training.
Targeted Strategy Sessions: Sliding scale fee for securing a series of 3-4 one on one’s to support strategy development and planning around a specific initiative or topic.