Dr. Lewis is the Director of IRRPP and College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of Black Studies and Sociology at the UIC. Her research focuses on how race shapes educational opportunities and how our ideas about race get negotiated in everyday life. She is the author of several award-winning books including, with co-author John Diamond, Despite the Best Intentions, and Race in the Schoolyard. As Director of IRRPP, she has co-authored a number of reports as part of the State of Racial Justice in Chicago project chronicling the experiences and conditions of racial/ethnic groups in the city. Lewis lectures and consults regularly on issues of racial and educational equity and contemporary forms of racism.