Jason T. Lewis will seek one of the three seats available in the September 10, 2013 school board election.
Lewis has become increasingly active in the Iowa City Community School District over the past several years. He summarizes his reasons for seeking a seat on the board in this way: “Our schools face myriad challenges. We need strong leadership to overcome them. Our district is growing. Members of the current board and administration have been integral in passing the RPS and diversity policy, which together give us a foundation to build a better, more equitable and future-ready district. The new board will be responsible for shepherding us into this new era. The children in the district deserve an education that will prepare them for a complex future. The board’s job is to facilitate the partnership among families, teachers and administrators with clear vision, listening to all stakeholders, but unafraid to lead. I look forward to being an integral part of that dynamic relationship.”
Lewis, 41, of 1403 Hollywood Boulevard in Iowa City, is a past president of the Mark Twain Elementary PTO. He has taught in the English department at Augustana College in Rock Island, IL, was assistant director of the Judith Frank Business Communication Center at the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business, where he also taught Foundations of Business, and is currently the director of the Writing and Humanities Program at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.
Lewis earned a Masters of Fine Arts degree in fiction from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop (2007), where he received a Teaching/Writing Fellowship. He holds a Regents Bachelors of Arts degree from West Virginia University. Lewis hails from Morgantown, West Virginia and lived in New York City for 11 years, where he was a musician and songwriter and worked in the marketing and advertising industry as a copy editor.
He has released six collections of original music and published his first novel, The Fourteenth Colony: a novel with music, in 2011.
Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.