Dr. Maria Lewis

Maria M. Lewis is an Associate Professor in Education Policy Studies and an affiliate faculty member with the law school at Pennsylvania State University. Prior to joining the faculty at Pennsylvania State University, Dr. Lewis worked as a School Administration Consultant on the Special Education Team at the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, where she provided support to school districts and conducted complaint investigations related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Her research applies a critical lens to examine the intersection of education law, policy, and leadership. Specifically, her research explores: 1) the ways the law may hinder or support the educational experiences of minoritized students 2) the relationship between social science research and laws or policies that implicate educational equity; 3) protecting and enforcing federal civil rights under the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights; and 4) systemic change for equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice in education.

Dr. Lewis’s work has been published in journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Administration Quarterly, Educational Researcher, Teachers College Record, Southern California Law Review, and Rutgers Race and the Law Review. She regularly co-authors with undergraduate and graduate students and enjoys the opportunity to mentor and support students on their professional journeys. Her advisees and research assistants have received numerous accolades, including the Education Law Association’s George Jay Joseph Education Law Writing Award and the Pennsylvania State University College of Education’s Undergraduate Award for Student Leadership and Service.

Dr. Lewis is committed to practical and publicly engaged scholarship. Some examples of this commitment include:

• serving as a regular columnist for the Legal Matters column for Principal Leadership, a publication for the National Association of Secondary School Principals (link);

• co-authoring a policy brief for the National Education Policy Center (link);

• co-authoring commentary for Brookings Institution (link);

• co-creating a publicly available database of federal civil rights complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights from 1999-2019 (link); and

• providing consulting services at the intersection of law and educational equity at the state and school district levels.